St. Lawrence River sewage dump petition gets thousands of signatures

More than 25,000 people have signed a new petition demanding the City of Montrealput a stop to its plans to temporarily dump raw sewage into the St. Lawrence River.

• Montreal to dump 8 billion litres of sewage in the St.Lawrence
• St. Lawrence raw sewage dump on hold after public outcry
• Millions of litres of sewagespilled into Montreal rivers

The petition, named "The St. Lawrence is not a garbage,"is addressed toSorel-Tracy, Que.,Mayor SergePloquin, as well as Montreal MayorDenisCoderreand city hall opposition leaderLucFerrandez.

It sprang up after the city announced this week it would have to temporarilydivert a sewer interceptor, which would seeeight billion litres ofwastewater dumped into the river for a week starting Oct. 18.

The work is being done as part ofthe Bonaventure Expressway rebuilding project.

The announcement was swiftly met with public outcry, and was quickly albeit temporarily put on hold when Coderredemanded a second look.

It was restarted on Friday when thecity said any other option would be too time-consuming and cost-prohibitive.

Some experts have said the pressure of the river's current would push the sewage past the city in no time.

Other experts have said putting sewage in the St. Lawrence would have a significant impact on the plant and animal life living in and along the water.

Up until the1980s, it was common to clear Montreal's sewers by emptying them out into the St. Lawrence, but it is no longer considered anacceptablepractice.

It's been six years since the city last dumped raw sewage into the river.

• See a map of the city's sewer interceptors here