Montreal chooses new sewage treatment system

Montreal is getting a brand new purification plant that will use ozone technology to clean waste water, Mayor Grald Tremblay announced Wednesday.

The $200 million system, once in place, will ensure waste water dumped daily in the St. Lawrence river is disinfected, he said.

Montreal's raw sewage between 2.5 and 7.5 million cubic metres a day is filtered, but nottreated to remove pollutants such as viruses, bacteria, pharmaceutical drugs and detergents, which end up in the St. Lawrence River, affecting water quality and damaging thelocal ecosystem.

The ozone technology plant will be an effective way to clean water and doesn't harm fauna or flora the way ultraviolet irradiation does, the city said at a press conference announcing the project.

"Eventually [people] will be able to swim in the St. Lawrence River, and more than that, the people that use kayaks or surf, or other vehicles on the water, will be able to fall in the water," Tremblay said.

Ozone has a solid reputation for waste water management, said Bruce Walker, research director of the Montreal-based environment group STOP.

"Ozone is what STOP has been recommending for several years," he said at the press conference. The city has "chosen technology that isn't the cheapest, and that also will solve the problem."

Talks with the federal and provincial governments are underway to offset some of the costs, Tremblay said. Once completed, the plant will cost an estimated $9 million a year to run.

The plant project has to be approved by city hall and Montreal's regional agglomeration council.