Montreal, August 30, 2021
TRANSMISSION BY EMAIL
Mr. Benoit Charette, Minister
Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change
Marie-Guyart Building
675 René-Lévesque Boulevard East, 30th floor
Quebec (Quebec) G1R 5V7
Subject: Drying of Meadowbrook Creek and polluting cross connections
Minister,
The City of Montreal has asked your Ministry to authorize the carrying out of work to install storm sewer pipes in the Meadowbrook Creek sector, in the Lachine borough sector.
This work will have the effect of drying up the stream since the water will no longer flow through it. We ask you to suspend the issuance of the authorization until a solution is put in place to resolve the problem of cross-connections of sewer pipes, that is to say sanitary connections emptying into the rainwater network (and vice versa).
The work, although ordered by a court judgment, will cause environmental impacts greater than the current, temporary nuisances. The City of Montreal has also contested them. The pollution is the responsibility of the cities of Montreal West and Côte-Saint-Luc, which have been dumping sanitary water that has been flowing into the stream for decades. These cities should incidentally be sued by your department. The proof has been established and the problem is known to all. The regional management of the Ministry also carried out an inventory of the places and participated in the file.
We wrote on August 27 to your colleague, Ms. Andrée Laforest, in order to suggest proposals so that municipalities are better supervised in order to counter this continuing scourge. The attached letter lists the different solutions we have identified.
One of these concerns the MELCC. We propose that from now on municipal sanitation certificates also cover cross connections.
Thanking you for your attention to this letter, we remain available for any additional information.
Please accept, Mr. Minister, the expression of our distinguished greetings.
Alain Saladzius, P.Eng., FIC
President, Fondation Rivières
CC. Mr. Sylvain Ouellet, vice-president of the executive committee, City of Montreal
Ms. Maja Vodanovic, Mayor, Borough of Lachine
Ms. Louise Legault, Friends of Meadowbrook Park
Mr. Lionel Laramée, regional director of Montreal and Laval
pj Letter to Madame Andrée Laforest, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, August 27, 2021
Photo: Max Brindley/Unsplash
