City discharging raw sewage into Georgian Bay;

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City discharging raw sewage into Georgian Bay; MOE keeping closer eye on outflow from sewage treatment plant after finding deficiencies in waste water system: report

 

May 17, 2008

DENIS LANGLOIS / owensoundsuntimes.com

 

 

Millions of litres of raw sewage can flow into Owen Sound bay when heavy rain or spring thaws push the city's waste water system beyond capacity.

 

The information is part of a Ministry of the Environment report, which points to numerous "deficiencies" with Owen Sound's sewage treatment plant and collection systems.

 

The ministry report also noted occasions when the plant's effluent, which the city pumps into Georgian Bay, contained high concentrations of E. coli, suspended solid particles and ammonia.

 

In response, the ministry updated the treatment plant's certificate of approval May 5 to impose stricter requirements. The city must now provide the MOE with more frequent and timely samples of the plant's discharge and a plan on how it will measure the effluent's impact on the bay, said local MOE supervisor Shawn Carey.

 

"We're keeping a close eye on them through new monitoring reporting and stricter effluent levels," he said in an interview Thursday.

 

Owen Sound is the last city on Georgian Bay to treat its waste water only at the primary level and one of the last in Ontario with just a primary sewage treatment plant.

 

City council recently approved a 10-year timeline to upgrade the plant to secondary. The estimated $43 million cost would make the project the most costly in the city's history and beyond Owen Sound's financial reach without federal and provincial help.

 

Liat Podolsky, a research scientist with Ecojustice Canada, said both the federal and provincial governments must pony up more money to help cash-strapped municipalities upgrade their sewage treatment plants to the secondary level.

 

"And to upgrade all aging wastewater infrastructure in the Great Lakes region, which is badly in need of repair," she said Friday.

 

Ecojustice, a Canadian non-profit of lawyers and scientists devoted to protecting the environment, also believes the government should help fund measures which control stormwater at the source and reduce the volume and frequency of combined overflows and bypasses, she said. Those measures could include green roofs, permeable pavements and rain gardens - a planted depression designed to absorb rainwater runoff.

 

Raw sewage contains a cocktail of disease-causing bacteria and viruses and hundreds of toxic chemicals, she said.

 

"Untreated sewage in water results in contamination, which poses serious health threats and makes the water unsafe for swimming and fishing," she said.

 

The city's 36-year-old sewage treatment plant performs a basic process of screening, settlement, scum removal and some reduction in phosphorus and bacteria levels. High levels of chlorine are then added to the waste to kill some bacteria before the effluent is discharged into the bay, said public works manager Mike Crone.

 

Environment Canada has said chlorine will no longer be allowed in effluent after December 2009.

 

Secondary treatment, a requirement for new plants since 1982, uses chemical and biological methods to break down and remove biodegradable organic material and suspended solids and remove phosphorus.

 

The MOE inspected the city's treatment facility earlier this year. In a report it presented to the city in March, it noted the monthly sampling of E. coli concentration in the plant's effluent exceeded provincial guidelines of 200 parts per 100 millilitres five times last year. The January sampling contained 25,600 parts per 100 ml.

 

Crone said most sewage treatment plants do not disinfect in winter because the water is too cold for bacteria to replicate. Chlorine is also not as effective in the cold.

 

The MOE also noted high concentrations of suspended solid particles, one reading almost triple the provincial limit.

 

At times, concentrations of ammonia, suspended solids and organic materials would have likely failed toxicity tests, the report said.

 

Coun. Bill Twaddle, the city's environmental and waste advisory committee chairman, said the report reinforces the city's need to upgrade the sewage treatment plant.

 

The ministry report also noted concerns with the city's sewage collection system and raw sewage overflows.

 

"When you get a heavy rain, the volume flowing into the waste water treatment plant is often greater than the plant can accept. What that means is it then has to bypass," Twaddle said.

 

In those instances the water is not treated at all before it enters the bay.

 

"These combined sewer overflows may contain an untreated mixture of floatables, pathogenic micro-organisms, suspended solids, oxygen demanding organic compounds, nutrients, oil and grease, toxic contaminants and other pollutants," the report said.

 

Coun. Jim McManaman, operations advisory committee vice-chair, said an upgrade to secondary treatment is necessary, but the city must go through a lengthy approval process before work can begin.

 

"It's not a question of if, it's a question of when," he said in an interview Friday.

 

Twaddle said the city has spent "millions of dollars" to reduce such occurrences but that sewage and storm water still flow through the same pipe in some parts of the city.

 

The city now separates the two systems any time underground services are replaced.

 

Crone said since the city began monitoring bypasses and overflows in 1998, infrastructure upgrades have caused a continuous drop in incidents.

 

Ten bypasses were recorded in 2007 but "I hope sometime in the not-so-distant future they will be a thing of the past," he said.

 

Upgrading to a secondary treatment facility will in itself not eliminate the bypass problems, Crone said. That will still require separating the storm water and waste water systems.