City issues warning about Red River quality

The City of Winnipeg warned Wednesday that part of the sewage treatment process will be shut off for about five months, allowing more bacteria and viruses to enter the Red River.

The city, which is facing a multibillion-dollar lawsuit over polluting the Red River with untreated sewage, said it will shut off its ultraviolet treatment at the North End sewage treatment plant on Oct. 1. It doesn’t expect to resume it until March 2026, meaning residents must be careful how they and their pets use the river during that time.

“We will still treat wastewater as usual — just without the UV treatment, which uses UV lights to neutralize bacteria and viruses,” a city news release notes. “This means that the treated wastewater we release into the Red River will have more bacteria and viruses than normal. Higher levels of bacteria and viruses can be harmful to people and pets, but not to fish.”

The increased bacterial load comes as fallout continues from a major sewage spill last year. In February 2024, a pipe failure at 3100 Abinojii Mikanah led 228 million litres of raw sewage to be dumped into the Red River.

The city is facing charges under the provincial environment law in that case.

In addition, 11 First Nations are suing the municipal, provincial and federal governments, in a $4.8-billion lawsuit that claims the February 2024 spill as a key example of governments not doing enough to address water pollution. The lawsuit alleges decades of water contamination have caused physical, psychological, social and cultural harms to their communities.

In this case, city officials say the reduced treatment process is needed to complete the first phase of a $3-billion upgrade to the North End plant, a project that will ultimately greatly reduce the amount of pollution flowing out of the plant and into the river.

Tim Shanks, the city’s director of water and waste, said this portion of water treatment must stop for several months so the city can replace the UV system itself and test other parts of the upgrade before the first phase of the three-phase project is completed next summer.

“We did look at doing a shorter shutdown two years in a row, but that was a net increase in the length of time we would be without (UV) treatment,” said Shanks.

He said an option to replace UV treatment with chlorine created too high a risk of over-chlorinated water.

“(The) lowest risk option is this,” said Shanks, noting the provincial government approved the plan earlier this year.

He noted there is already fecal coliform bacteria in the river, from waterfowl, agricultural runoff, fish and other sources, though the removal of UV treatment will allow more to enter.

Shanks said the treatment change could allow nearly triple the amount of bacteria to enter the river through sewage effluent, though he noted wet weather can spark much higher levels of contamination.

“It could make an impact, but the river won’t be seeing bacteria levels that it doesn’t see at (some) times of the year,” he said.

Shanks said Winnipeg first added UV treatment to its sewage process in 2006, while many Canadian plants still lack that step.

The city is required to increase its water sampling while the UV treatment is turned off.

City officials are urging residents who live near the river or use it for recreation to: avoid direct contact with river water when possible; wash hands with soap after any direct contact with river water; use safe food-handling practices when consuming fish obtained from the river; and keep pets from contacting or drinking river water.

“If you accidentally or deliberately ingest river water, there’s a chance you could get gastrointestinal illness… There’s always a risk digesting (river water at any time) can make you sick,” said Shanks.

Coun. Ross Eadie, chairman of council’s water and waste committee, said the UV treatment needs to be paused to allow a critical city project to continue, while the city needed to flag the change to be transparent with the public.

The city will post warning signs about the bacteria later this week at key walking trails, boat launches and other access points along the river, within about three kilometres downstream and upstream of the sewage plant, which is at 2230 Main St.

These will carry the message “Caution! High bacteria levels in the river until March 2026.”

Shanks said timing the UV shutdown mostly in the winter months should help reduce the risk of people accidentally ingesting the water.

He stressed the change will have “zero” impact on drinking water, which comes from Shoal Lake.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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