Gatineau to finally track sewer overflows into the Ottawa River

The City of Gatineau is installing devices so it can finally measure the volume of itssewer overflows into the Ottawa River.

The move comesyears after its Ontario neighbour, the City of Ottawa, launched its17-project Ottawa River action planworth hundreds of millions of dollarsto clean up the same waterway.

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"We don't have the data for now," said Yves Faubert, the supervisor of Gatineau's sewage treatment plant said on a recent tour of the east-end facility.

Part of the challenge, he said, is that Gatineau has 92 sites where a combination of raw sewage and storm water can discharge, especiallywhen the sewer system is overloaded bybig storms or spring melts that would otherwise floodbasements. Ottawa, by contrast, has just 18 such sites.

And, while the 92 overflow pointsseems high, it's actually fewer than the 120 outlets that existed five years ago, said ChantalMarcotte, the head of Gatineau's environment department. As Gatineauseparates sewage from stormwater into separate pipes, it's been able to close off some outlets.

How much wastewater spills?

Because of new Quebec regulations that took effect in 2014,Gatineauis now installingmonitoring devices at 50 of thosesites.

Finally,the citywill havereal-time data about how often the overflows happen, and for how long.

Before now,Gatineauhad a rudimentary system where an employee would check sewer outletsonce a week to see if alittle piece of floatingwood in the sewer had moved, signallingthere had been an overflow.

Some 1,300 overflows happened in 2015, staff estimate, butGatineauhasno way of knowing the volume of those spills the way Ottawa does.

The Ottawa Riverkeeper, Meredith Brown, finds those figures astounding.

"That's huge," said Brown of the 1,300 overflows. Ottawa counted 80 overflow events in the same year.

"I don't thinkpeople really understand how often untreated sewage is going in the river."

"The fact that there's so many (sewer outlets in Gatineau)means there's not much shoreline there that doesn't have one pipe close to it," said Brown, who advocates for the health of the river.

Strategy coming by end of 2017

Having real-time data from the monitoring devices will help staff figure out the city's true problem spots, according to the head of the city's environment department, Chantal Marcotte.

Then they'll know where to focus their efforts in a strategy for dealing with sewer overflows that's due by the end of 2017. It will be a balancing act betweenthe ultimate solution of spending money to separateall sewage and storm water into separate pipes, which could cost $350 million, or dealing mainly with problem areas.

Staff already know that ten of the 92 outlets are problematic and not compliant with regulations because those outlets havebeen known to overflow even when there is no big storm or spring melt.

The Ottawa Riverkeeperstillsays she'd like to see Gatineaudo more, and sooner.

It shouldn't have taken so many years and a change of regulations for Gatineau to start tracking its overflows, she said.

"I think it's irresponsible," said Brown."I think for any municipality, any business, anybody who'soperating on the Ottawa River, they have a responsibility to all Canadians to be good stewards and understand the impact they're having on the river."

Sewage treatment plant to get an upgrade

While the city tries to track overflows, and separate storm pipes from sewer pipes, Gatineau's sewage treatment plant has issues of its own.

Operators often have to let wastewater flow past the plant on rue Notre-Dame in the city's east end and into the river, not fully treated, especially during spring runoff and big storms.

Sothe city is in the early stages of a $150 million upgrade one the OttawaRiverkeeper says has been on the books for a decade that will boost the amount of wastewater the plant can treat.

With greater capacity, the plant will directless wastewater straight to theriver, said Faubert.

"It boils down to money"

When she reflects on the different approaches so far to improve the health of the Ottawa River a waterway that is the main source of drinking water for both cities Brownsays it all "boils down tomoney" and municipal priorities.

The Ottawa Riverkeepercredits Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson for making the river's water quality part of his election campaigns, getting the action plan approved by council in 2010,and thensecuring the funding for the many projects, including the big-ticketunderground sewage storage tunnel that's under construction.

Likewise, she says Gatineau city council needs to make overflows a priority, and the Quebec government needs to funnel money that way.

Gatineau councillors have signalledto staff they need to be ready to make a strong case for sewer improvement projectswhen the federal government starts its big, promised spending on infrastructure.

"If I'm with my family, with my kids, I don't want to swim near a combined sewer overflow," said Brown.