Wow

[marble eyes]

I always new Ottawa was full of it........ This is rediculous... If someone has some more computer skills than I and could get an online petition page or something that every one could sign and send to our local MP... or the Minister of Natural Resources we could relay our disgust in this situation?????????

[cccp]

I believe that it is irrelevant what kind of stuff being dumped/spilled released. Whether it would be grey/black water or hard staff. My general concern is the way this staff is cleaned/refiened on a treatment plant. If I remember correctly one part of cleaning process includes micro-organisms treatment. Huge amount of microbacteria released to dirty substance and clean it by consuming oxygen and different organic staff from the wastewater. As you probably already guessed this is time consuming process. On the next stage this microorganisms got killed or redirected to the previous stage. So back to the point. If the wastewater is being released at the stage when those bacterias had not being killed yet (remeber this is time consuming process) then all this staff is going to the river and it is even worse that just releasing sewage. The reason being the fact that it consumes huge amount of oxygen (which is required for all aquatic lifeforms) and those bacterias highly capable of reproduction.

[Wallyboss]

Not sure if the City will get fined for this last spill, the reason they were fined a couple of years ago I think wasn't because of the actual spill it was because they never notified the ministry that they had a spill.

[nips]

How much did that stupid spider at the gallery cost?

How about no money for anything trivial like that until this problem is solved?

And what about Gatineau? Haven't heard a thing about them... same deal for them or what?

go easy i work at the gallery

[Hookup]

How much did that stupid spider at the gallery cost?

How about no money for anything trivial like that until this problem is solved?

And what about Gatineau? Haven't heard a thing about them... same deal for them or what?

go easy i work at the gallery

Not everyone agrees what "true art is"...

[Eli]

I'd be curious to know how the Ottawa stacks up against other Canadian rivers in terms of pollution.
Anyone have stats on this?

[MichaelVandenberg]

Not excusing it but in my opinion and from what I have pieced together...

The whole water treatment plant system needs to be overhaul to the tune of $500 million dollars...The city doesn't have this money and the feds won't foot the bill...The Cities answer now is to make EVERY spill public and use the public to pressure the feds to cough up the money to fix the system...

Good thing the light rail project is going to be done soon ... Money well spent there

Mike

[Hookup]

random thought: I just want the bridge built between barrhaven and riverside south... As long as we are spending money that is...

[Todd B.]

I've posted this previously, the Ontario Water Resources Act allows municipalities to bypass raw sew in a limited number of circumstances.

Bypasses

In emergency situations, the MOEE allows STPs to "bypass" raw sewage directly into Ontario receiving waters. The MOEE lists three situations that may justify bypasses.39 First, a significant increase in the amount of wastewater flowing into an STP during a storm or spring thaw may require a bypass to prevent basements from flooding when the sewers back up. Second, equipment breakdown and other operational problems in the STPs may require bypassing to prevent the damage of equipment at treatment works or pumping facilities. Third, when population and/or industrial growth exceeds the design capacity of the STP, bypassing may be necessary to prevent a washout of solids in the treatment works during storm events. In other words, when a storm occurs, a bypass allows for the quick removal of solids and speedy discharge of the wastewater to handle the large inflow into the STP and prevent the release of solid waste into the receiving waters.

In a nutshell, whenever we get a good rain, the city plays their "Free Bypass Card" and simply reports it. Now when the city screws up and a valve is left open, etc, they're expected to report it ast well and can potentially incure fines from the province.

As Michael points out, the older parts of town that have connected stormwater and wastewater systems, the upgrade costs are incredibly high. Given that the city blew the 100 million in infrastruture funding that it was given by the province on snow removal, it's doubtful the province will be giving the city any new infrastruture fund in the immediate future.

Unfortunately, the only way this will be accomplished is if property taxes are raised to cover the costs, which I doubt the majority of city residents would be willing to finance.

On a side note, given the changing weather patterns, I'm surprised that the city does not require property owners (i.e. large building, strip malls, etc) to provide temporary water storage so as to mitigate the effect of heavy rains as they do in California.

At the rate at which new developments are popping up it's no wonder why we have stomwater problems. We pave over a field that once absorbed water, now all of that water flows directly into the stormwater system.

I also think that the some of the new retention ponds that have been created are less than adequate (at least in the Barrhavean area), given that the new subdivisions are nowhere near completion, yet the retention ponds are already close to capacity.

Just my $.02

[cccp]

How about instead of rising taxes for individuals, tax those who are making profit on those new developments. Goverment might as well put in place/reconsider clear guidelines for the retention infrustructure. Property prices will go up. Isn`t it what everyone wants?

[Todd B.]

Sure increased development fees could be imposed on the developers, however this would simply trickle down to consumers. While the demand for new homes exceeds supply, any fees a developer has to pay will be rolled into the cost of the house.

[Hookup]

and the rich get richer and the poor get poor'er...

This too, like so many other things, seems major today but will be old news before too long...

[Todd B.]

Makes you wonder how all those new subdivision in Kanata west (around the carp river) will do after they put in the remaining houses, then pave all the land for the numerous big box outlets that have already been planned for the area. I'd put money on it that the city's hydrology models don't refect the current reality.

[Hookup]

i'm not taking that bet...

Maybe some activist groups like Trout Unlimited/Ducks Unlimited could raise some awareness and draw attention to these issues.

It sucks feeling helpless, and sucks more feeling like you could do something but the effort involved to move the mountain is just too demanding.

Pass the buck, hope someone else does something, ignore it... this is how things like this go on and on... I know I'm part of it.

[Wallyboss]

I heard on the news this morning that Ottawa is not the only one that has spills in the Ottawa River. As per the news so far this year (or in the last year) Gatineau has had 640 spills into the Ottawa River, they have no way of saying how big the spills were but they can say how many they had.