Latest news with #TammyRose
Ottawa Citizen
11-07-2025
- Climate
- Ottawa Citizen
Small sewage overflow into Ottawa River won't affect water quality at beaches, officials say
A sewer collection system malfunction led to an overflow of raw waste into the Ottawa River on July 10, according to a Thursday memo to the mayor and city councillors. Article content '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. Article content Article content Article content Matthew Ruf, an Ottawa Public Health program manager, said there was 'no impact on the beaches' in Ottawa. Article content Article content '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.' Article content 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. Article content Article content OPH was 'not aware of any further spills,' Turnbull continued, adding it would not close beaches unless there was a 'significant adverse event.' Article content Ottawa beaches meet the water quality standards nearly 85 per cent of the time, Turnbull continued. Article content 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
CTV News
11-07-2025
- General
- CTV News
Malfunction in sewer collection system led to brief overflow into Ottawa River: City
The Ottawa River with Parliament Hill in the background. (Brad Quinn/CTV News Ottawa) The City of Ottawa says a malfunction with an instrument in the sanitary sewer collection system Thursday led to sewage briefly overflowing into the Ottawa River. Tammy Rose, general manager of Infrastructure and Water Services at the City of Ottawa, said in a memo to the mayor and members of council that operations staff noticed the issue immediately and overrode the system to stop the overflow. The total volume of the overflow was 2.92 cubic metres, or 2,920 litres. 'For context, 300 cubic metres represents approximately 0.1 per cent of the daily volume received and treated at Robert O. Pickard Environmental Centre (ROPEC) on a typical day,' Rose wrote. 'The team is continuing to investigate what caused the issue and are taking steps to prevent this from happening again.' The incident has been referred to the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change Spills Action Centre, Rose said.
