Hamilton finds another quarter-century-old sewage leak into the harbour
The city says it has found more homes flushing directly into Hamilton Harbour as a result of a proactive" inspection program sparked by the discovery of a 26-year-old sewage spill late last year.
It probably won't be the last such discovery, local officials warned.
We are likely to discover other similar discharges, unfortunately," said the city's water director, Nick Winters, at a news briefing Monday announcing the latest spill, this time from an improperly connected sewer near Lifesavers Park.
The city is now using a pump truck to stop the latest leak, which, like the spill found in November, also dates back to underground repairs gone wrong as far back as 1996. The bad connection means about 11 homes near Myrtle and Rutherford avenues have been flushing sewage into a storm sewer that empties into the bay.
An estimate of how much sewage escaped is not yet available, but the spill has been reported to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks.
Last November, the city found a now-infamous sewer repair mixup dating back to 1996 under Wentworth Street North that had allowed sewage to flow from about 50 homes directly into the industrial port via a storm drain.
That 337-million-litre spill prompted a provincial pollution investigation, which is ongoing, and an announcement by Environment Minister David Piccini that he would order an audit" of Hamilton's aging sewer system.
Hamilton is still waiting for that order.
But in the meantime, the city embarked on its own proactive inspection" program looking for problems in high-risk areas, said Winters. In particular, workers are checking maintenance holes near larger storm sewers to see if any mistaken pipe connections are visible.
After 151-and-counting inspections since December, the city found another sanitary sewer linked to a storm drain.
Both spills date back to 1996 and both were dumping out of the same storm pipe into the industrial harbour near the end of Wentworth Avenue North. Winters said Monday he did not know if the similar date of botched sewer construction is anything other than a coincidence.
It's not yet clear if the province will order a more comprehensive sewer system audit - think video inspections of 1,800-plus kilometres of sewer pipe - or simply ask the city to expand its current risk-based" assessment pilot.
In a late Monday email, ministry spokesperson Lindsay Davidson acknowledged the latest reported spill and said the new discovery will be addressed" in the pending order for last year's sewage leak.
We are highly concerned (about) incidences of leaked sewage into Hamilton Harbour and ensuring the causes of these spills are identified and effectively dealt with."
Mayor Andrea Horwath said Monday that she supports the proactive inspection experiment. Nobody wants this kind of news," she said in the briefing. But it's our responsibility and obligation to let Hamiltonians know when something like this is happening."
Horwath also noted the newly elected council is talking about new measures - and heftier budgets - to tackle Hamilton's aging, overflow-prone combined sewers.
The city is still in court over pollution charges related to its biggest sewage spill in recent years: a 24-billion-litre, four-year leak into Chedoke Creek that also spurred an ordered cleanup that is supposed to resume next year.
Matthew Van Dongen is a transportation and environment reporter at The Spectator. mvandongen@thespec.com