Province probes enormous sewage discharge into Red River

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This article was published 21/02/2024 (611 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MANITOBA Environment Minister Tracy Schmidt said Wednesday the province has launched an investigation and was monitoring water quality in the Red River to assess the damage caused by a massive sewage leak in Winnipeg — which measured more than 90 Olympic-size swimming pools.

“Water is life. That’s why we need to do what we can to keep our rivers and lakes clean, healthy and safe,” Schmidt wrote in an email.

“Our government continues to offer support to the City of Winnipeg to ensure this spill is resolved as quickly as possible.”

Efforts to stem the flow of millions of litres of untreated waste water into the river continued Wednesday.

The city government said “every litre counts” as it urged tens of thousands of southwest Winnipeg residents and businesses to limit water use for a second day in a row.

“Anything you can do to reduce that water coming through your house and going down the drain will help us on the other end,” Tim Shanks, the city’s director of water and waste, told an afternoon news conference.

The city issued a plea Tuesday for an estimated 90,000 water customers in St. Norbert, Fort Richmond, Richmond West, Waverley West, Bridgwater, Linden Woods, Linden Ridge, Whyte Ridge, Waverley Heights and the University of Manitoba to take shorter showers, limit laundry loads and hold off on washing their vehicles.

Shanks noted it was the first time he can recall the city issuing a widespread plea to limit water use.

He said compliance with the request is voluntary.

The spill, caused by a pair of failed pipes beneath the Fort Garry Bridge, began two weeks ago and had dumped an estimated 228 million litres of raw sewage — a volume equivalent to that of 91 Olympic-size swimming pools — into the river as of 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, according to city reports.

Crews identified a leak in one of the pipes used to transport waste water to the South End sewage treatment plant in November.

The leaky pipe was shut down, while the remaining one, “found to be in poor condition,” was used to handle the flow, the city said.

The hope was that the second pipe would be adequate to handle the flow until crews were able to install a bypass system over the bridge, but it failed Feb. 7.

“Water is life. That’s why we need to do what we can to keep our rivers and lakes clean, healthy and safe.”–Environment and Climate Change Minister Tracy Schmidt

Staff were on site trying to install the system when the disastrous failure occurred, Shanks said.

The city has managed to install a relief pump and temporary pipes to divert some of the waste, but some sewage continues to spill during peak hours of the day, Shanks said.

A second pump is slated to reinforce the stop-gap measure, but crews have encountered technical issues with the installation and it is not expected to be finished until the end of the week, he said.

Once complete, the bypass system will remain in place until a permanent replacement can be constructed, which could take until “well into 2025,” he said.

The city has not prepared an official estimate on what it could cost to permanently replace the infrastructure.

Shanks stressed the failure of the pipes was not related to a funding issue, but was caused by an inaccurate assessment of how long the infrastructure could last in its current condition. Other pipes throughout the city had been assessed to be higher priority for replacement and repair.

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It is the largest such spill to occur in Winnipeg since 2002, when a mechanical failure at the city’s north sewage treatment plant dumped 427 million litres of untreated sewage into the Red.

Environment Canada laid charges against the city after the spill, but they were stayed by a provincial court judge.

Although crews regularly monitor the quality of the city’s waterways, it is too early to account for the environmental impact related to the incident.

Shanks said the city had notified provincial and federal regulators about the leak, as it is required to do so.

Under the regulations, such an event could be subject to fines, pending the results of an investigation.

Progressive Conservative environment critic Greg Nesbitt, accused the NDP of taking a “hands-off” approach in addressing “the worst sewage spill in Winnipeg in a generation.”

“The NDP must take the immediate steps needed to stop this leak and ensure sewer lines around Winnipeg are protected from future catastrophic failures. Winnipeg’s waterways are Manitoba’s waterways. It’s time for the NDP to show urgency and take decisive action,” said Nesbitt.

Eric Reder, a campaign director for the Manitoba Wilderness Committee, called the spill a “disappointment” saying it could be the result of decades of urban sprawl, poor city planning and climate change contributing to a volatile freeze-thaw cycle.

“The care for water in Manitoba isn’t very high on the priority list for any government,” he said.

Residents of some of the affected neighbourhoods told the Free Press they are concerned about the environmental impact.

“It’s scary,” said Pina Robinson. “What is going to happen to the river?”

Robinson, who lives near the Fort Garry Bridge, said she learned about the sewage leak through media reports and has since been making efforts to reduce her water use.

The impact on her daily life has been minimal, she said.

Some staff from businesses in the affected areas, including hotels, said they were not contacted by the city and weren’t aware of the water-limit request.

The manager at one car wash said requests for people to refrain from cleaning vehicles had not yet begun to affect business; customers were lined up in the early afternoon.

The University of Manitoba has not been significantly impacted because many students are currently away from campus for reading week, a spokesperson told the Free Press.

Officials from the Louis Riel and Pembina Trails school divisions said they were aware of the situation but had not been contacted by the city.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.