Montreal sewage dump: Environment minister gives conditional OK

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre saysthe city will meet conditions imposed Monday by Canada's environment and climate change minister and proceed with its controversial proposal to dump eight billion litres of raw sewage into the St. Lawrence River as early as this week.

Catherine McKennasaid earlier Monday that the city couldproceed with the dump onceit meetsstrict new conditions formonitoring and minimizingthe environmental impact of the dump.

Those conditions include:

• Improvements to the city's emergency management plan for the dump.
• Improvedvisual surveillance of the discharge plume.
• A more comprehensive cleanupplan foraffected areas.
• Monitoring of the discharge's impact on the river's ecosystembefore, during and after the discharge.
• A comprehensive review of the process leading up to the city's decision to dump the raw sewage.

She said Montreal can proceed with the dump under these conditions up until Dec. 5, 2015.

She said the city couldproceed "tomorrow" if Environment Canada'sconditions are met.

Coderreagreed with the conditions and said he was confident city planners could meet them and proceed with the dump.

He hinted the dumpcould startas early as this week.

The mayor said the details of how the city would meetEnvironment Canada's conditionswould be addressed at a news conference on Tuesday.

"This plan has been the work of experts from the start, and they decided that we didn't have a choice," Coderre said.

'Far from ideal'

Calling the city's plan "far from ideal," McKenna agreed with the findings of an independent panel of scientists that the city's planned release this fall was preferable toan accidental release of waste water caused by Montreal'sdecaying sewer system.

The City ofMontreal says the dump is necessary so it can complete essential infrastructure work including repairs toa keysewer interceptor.

RAW: Denis Coderre on sewage dump

9 years ago

Duration 0:25

Mayor Denis Coderre reacts to new conditions imposed by Environment Canada on Montreal's plan to dump eight billion litres of raw sewage in the St. Lawrence River.

"The risks of an unplanned discharge are significant and increase over time. It's balancing risk," McKenna noted.

The minister highlighted the role that what she called "evidence-based decision making"played in her position on the sewage discharge.

She also underscored the need for Montreal to improve its consultation processwith affected communities, including First Nations.

Coderre responded Monday night that First Nations have been consulted by the city and will continue to be as the city's plan moves forward.

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The cityannounced plans to dumpthe untreated wastewater into theSt. Lawrence River earlier this fall, as a part of construction work on theBonaventure Expressway.

The issue became a political hot potato during the recent federal election campaign, drawingcriticism from environmental advocatesand prompting the former Conservative government to issue a decreehalting plans for the dump until it could be more carefully studied.

Thehot potato then passed to McKenna, theLiberal government'snew environment minister.

The Environment Ministry received an experts'report on Friday that concludes Montreal should onlyproceed with the dump whensteps are takento better understand and mitigate theenvironmental impacts.

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