Small sewage overflow into Ottawa River won't affect water quality at beaches, officials say
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'Operations staff noticed immediately and overrode the automation to stop the overflow,' City of Ottawa Infrastructure and Water Services Department general manager Tammy Rose wrote in the memo.
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Matthew Ruf, an Ottawa Public Health program manager, said there was 'no impact on the beaches' in Ottawa.
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'The amount of sewage that was released was a very small amount,' Ruf said. 'The nearest downstream from that is Petrie (Island), and that's about 18 kilometres away, so it's quite a distance and the dilution would be significant over that time period to get there.'
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Ottawa Public Health had tested water quality at beaches on July 9, one day before the sewage outflow. According to those tests, the E. coli bacteria counts at both Petrie Island beaches did not meet the Ontario water quality standard even before the sewage dump.
Ottawa Public Health did not respond to questions about why the bacteria levels exceeded Ontario standards on July 9, but spokesperson Julie Turnbull wrote in an emailed statement that water quality could change 'rapidly' depending on environmental factors such as weather.
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OPH was 'not aware of any further spills,' Turnbull continued, adding it would not close beaches unless there was a 'significant adverse event.'
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Ottawa beaches meet the water quality standards nearly 85 per cent of the time, Turnbull continued.
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The volume of the July 10 overflow was 2.92 cubic metres, Rose wrote in her memo, which translates to 2,920 litres. For comparison purposes, the memo added, 300 cubic metres (or 300,000 litres) represents approximately 0.1 per cent of the daily volume received and treated at the city's Robert O. Pickard Environmental Centre (ROPEC) on a typical day
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