Bypass that allowed sewage to spill into Red River wasn't supposed to open automatically: city official - CBC
A file photo shows the Red River in Winnipeg. About 10 million litres of untreated wastewater spilled into the river early Monday, after two bypass gates at the North End sewage treatment plant opened unexpectedly. (Gary Solilak/CBC)Social SharingA spill that unexpectedly discharged millions of litres of raw sewage into the Red River on Monday isn't expected to have a long-term impact on water quality, City of Winnipeg officials say.
Tim Shanks, the city's water and waste director, said his department has done supplementary sampling work, and will continue to perform regular testing, following the incident at the North End sewage treatment plant early Monday morning.
"Should any of these results ever raise concern, we obviously would notify the public," Shanks told reporters Tuesday.
"We do take this incident very seriously, so we're working on some immediate corrective actions."
Two bypass gates at the plant opened unexpectedly at about 1:10 a.m. on Monday, releasing an estimated 9.8 million litres of partially treated sewage β about four Olympic-sized swimming pools' worth β into the Red River.
The spill represents about 0.5 per cent of volume in the river, said Shanks.
The environmental impact is expected to be similar to when the plant shut its ultraviolet system off for upgrades last year, leading to elevated bacteria levels a few kilometres downstream.
The bypass that opened in this week's spill is meant to be opened only in rare scenarios to allow for certain kinds of work, said Shanks.
Tim Shanks is the director of the city's water and waste department. He says supplementary sampling work was done following the early Monday morning sewage spill. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)
The city estimates the spill lasted about two hours and 37 minutes.
Shanks said the gates weren't fully set up yet, and there was no alarm alerting staff about the spill, since the gates were supposed to be triggered manually, not automatically.
"We're investigating as to why they were put in automatic [mode]," Shanks said.
"To prevent this from happening again immediately β¦ there's a lock on these gates now," he said, so an operator now has to open them.
The incident has been reported to the provincial and federal governments, Shanks said.
The province said Monday evening an investigation will determine whether any enforcement or compliance measures are needed.
The City of Winnipeg is in the midst of a three-phase upgrade to the North End treatment plant, which is estimated to cost $3.2 billion in total.
The megaproject dates back to 2003, when the province ordered the city to upgrade the plant in order to reduce the outflow ofΒ nutrients into Lake Winnipeg.
The plant's headworks facility β the first of the project's three phases β began operating earlier this year, following years of delays.
Grey water flows at Winnipeg's North End sewage treatment plant in a February file photo. The City of Winnipeg is in the midst of a three-phase upgrade to the North End treatment plant, which is estimated to cost $3.2 billion in total. (Rudi Pawlychyn/CBC)
Monday's spill came days after the federal government announced $500 million in funding for the project's third and final phase, which is now expected to be finished by 2032.
Shanks said the upgraded facilities have been running quite well since they became operational β except for this incident.
"During the past few months, we've been running these controls, testing different instruments β¦ to establish how the plant works and confirm that all the systems work properly," he said.
"It's a very complicated process, but unfortunately there has been an issue here."
