Leaky pipe spews raw sewage into Red River in St. Vital

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This article was published 13/02/2024 (571 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A pipe leak has spilled nearly 116 million litres of untreated sewage into the Red River over the past several days — and hasn’t stopped yet.

The City of Winnipeg’s website notes an estimated 115.8 million litres of wastewater escaped the 3100 Abinojii Mikanah (Bishop Grandin Boulevard) outfall and river crossing pipe between roughly 9 a.m. Feb. 7 and 12 a.m. Monday.

“We’re working on the problem… and, obviously, the environmental impact is a concern,” Coun. Brian Mayes, chairman of council’s water and waste committee, said Monday.

The size of the sewage spill appears unusually large.

In 2022, when a major sewage spill dumped 78 million litres of diluted sewage into the Assiniboine River, the city said the event was the largest overflow incident in at least five years.

In that case, wastewater mixed with snow melt was released into the river when a temporary sewage pump — in place while the city replaced a Portage Avenue interceptor sewer pipe — couldn’t keep up with the flow.

Mayes (St. Vital) said the latest concerning spill underlines a need to continue routine infrastructure investments to prevent pipe failures, which he said is the city’s standard practice.

“It does highlight the need to keep plowing $20-plus-million per year into our sewer mains. This is separate from the combined sewer work (to prevent combined sewer overflows)… We have to keep modernizing the sewer mains,” he said.

Combined sewer overflows occur in older Winnipeg sewers that collect both precipitation and wastewater in a single pipe. Heavy rain or snow events can cause such pipes to overflow, which sent an estimated 27.5 billion litres of diluted sewage into local waterways in 2022.

In an email, water and waste spokeswoman Lisa Marquardson said pipe issues connected to the current spill started in November, when crews found a leak on a 700-millimetre, high-density polyethylene pipe under the river, leading it to be “immediately taken out of service.”

“The 800-mm HDPE pipe was also found to be in poor condition but could still handle the flow across the river. Planning for a bypass system began immediately after the first pipe failure, so that the two pipes could be taken out of service,” wrote Marquardson.

Last week, work began to build a bypass system across the Fort Garry Bridge to restore sewage capacity, leading to traffic lane closures.

However, the second pipe failed two days into that project. Following that failure, the work to assemble the bypass system over the bridge accelerated, so the bypass system may be put into use soon, noted Marquardson.

“Once the emergency bypass pumping system is installed and operational, the sewage discharge will stop, and the two pipes under the river will be abandoned. We anticipate that all traffic lanes will be open on the bridge once the bypass is operational.”

On Monday, Marquardson said the bypass should begin operating, ending the leak, “over the next few days.”

The city noted wet weather, including recent melting temperatures, increased the size of the spill.

“The wet weather makes it worse as it adds more flow to the pipes, increasing the amount that ends up in the river,” said Marquardson.

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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.

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