Montreal facing more than $12.5M in lawsuits over undisclosed landfill sites

The City of Montreal is facing lawsuits totalling more than $12.5 million in connection with old quarries and dumps that property owners worry are contaminating their land and devaluing their investments.

A document obtained by Radio-Canada shows the city is setting aside additional money for a geological engineer and environmental expert due to "new lawsuits."

• Homeowners to sue city for not telling them about former dumps

The document says there are 13 lawsuits that are now in preliminary stages concerning sites in the PlateauMont-Royal, RosemontLa Petite-Patrie, Ahuntsic-Cartierville and Ville-Marie neighbourhoods.

Property owners say the citydid not disclose important information about their land.

"We're living with the sword of Damocles," said homeowner and Rosemont resident Martin Lavalle.

"The value of our house and our investment may be affected by information that the city hid from us."

A list of more than 60sites of known and possible old landfillswaskept secret by the City of Montreal for 22 years until a CBC/Radio-Canada investigation exposed itin 2015.

• MAP: Contaminated dumps could be beneath 100s of Montreal homes and parks

The investigation revealed that hundreds of buildings, schools and parks had been built on land thatcould be contaminated.

At the time, Mayor Denis Coderre's administration said it did not know about the list and promised to publish updated information.

In 2016, 16 updated maps were released showing the location of 94 old quarries around the city.

• Montreal waits before decontaminating hidden dump sites