City downplays impact of sewage spills in lawsuit defence
The city says sewage spills have little effect on pollution in Lake Winnipeg and the blame for any water-quality issues falls on the provincial and federal governments, which have not provided the necessary funds to upgrade the sewer system.
That's the argument the City of Winnipeg advanced in a statement of defence filed in Manitoba Court of King's Bench last week against a $4.8-billion lawsuit filed last year by eight Manitoba First Nations. Three additional First Nations have since become joined the legal action that also names the provincial and federal governments as defendants.
The First Nations — Black River, Berens River, Brokenhead Ojibway, Hollow Water, Kinonjeoshtegon, Misipawistik Cree, Sagkeeng Anicinabe and Poplar River — launched the suit a year ago. Bloodvein, Dauphin River and Fisher River Cree First Nations have since been added.
They claim decades of pollution have caused physical, psychological, social and cultural harms to their communities, all located downstream from Winnipeg.
'The impugned discharges are a de minimis (too small to be of significance) contribution to the cumulative nutrient loading in Lake Winnipeg each year, and the city's impact on same is declining as it continues (to) make significant capital investments to reduce and mitigate the amount of nutrients released by the city's wastewater system,' the city's court document says.
The city says Lake Winnipeg's watershed, with drainage from as far away as Alberta, Montana, South Dakota and Minnesota, includes nutrients and pollutants from wastewater and surface runoff areas with intensive agriculture.
As well, the city says Manitoba Hydro's hydroelectric infrastructure, including regulating Lake Winnipeg between a fixed range of water levels, also plays a role in lake conditions.
'Due to the predominance of other sources impacting the cumulative nutrient loading and pollutants to Lake Winnipeg, further reducing or even eliminating nutrient contribution from the city's wastewater system would not restore Lake Winnipeg to its natural condition or eliminate the impacts alleged in the claim.'
The city also launched a cross claim against both the provincial and federal governments.
'Together, Manitoba and Canada possess the exclusive legislative jurisdiction to regulate the cumulative environmental impacts on Lake Winnipeg,' the claim says.
'If the city has any liability to the plaintiffs, which is denied, then such liability is a result of Manitoba and/or Canada's failure to… provide the city with the necessary financial support to upgrade its wastewater management system.'
Earlier this year, before the federal election was called, both senior governments promised more funding to support the $3-billion upgrade of the city's North End sewage treatment plant.
Liberal MP Terry Duguid said his government was adding another $16 million to the $150 million it pledged for the project last year while provincial Municipal Relations Minister Glen Simard said the NDP government's total contribution is $414 million, including $120 million of new funding.
Black River Chief Sheldon Kent could not be reached for comment Friday.
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But, during a news conference last year, Kent criticized the city for allowing repeated sewage leaks and spills into the Red River, which then flow to Lake Winnipeg.
'Water is life,' he said.
The lawsuit said the city itself reports that between January 2004 and mid-April 2024, there were about 353 'major unplanned discharges of untreated wastewater, which includes raw sewage' into both the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, for a total of about 522 million litres of untreated wastewater.
Both the city and the province declined to comment because the matter is before the courts.
kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Kevin RollasonReporter
Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press's city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.
Every piece of reporting Kevin 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.
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