PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Montreal, October 2, 2015 – The City of Montreal failed to convince the Fondation Rivières of the merits of its decision to discharge a third of its sewage from the Island directly into the St. Lawrence River for one week, starting October 18. At most, the City presented the context of the work: the abandonment of the Wellington snow chute to relocate it to an access point on Riverside Street.
The comments made during today's press conference give rise to further concern. Unable to name the municipalities that draw their supplies from the river that would be affected by the plume of contamination, the City could nevertheless assure that they “would not be affected”. However, five municipalities would receive sewer discharges directly into their water intake: Varennes, Verchères, Contrecoeur, Lavaltrie and Berthierville.
The question of diverting the water during the work was dodged by mentioning that it would cost 1 billion $ if we doubled all the piping on the Island!
The City has not made any “intelligible” document available: absence of report, plans for locating overflows, explanations on the nature of the “work”, etc. The authorization obtained from the Ministry of Sustainable Development, the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change was not provided and the Ministry was absent from the press conference.
The Fondation Rivières further considers that the City has not identified all possible measures to reduce impacts, such as temporary water pumping, a temporary pipeline or the use of specific construction methods. Nothing indicates the cost of such mitigation measures, nor indeed the cost that this mega-pollution would cause, the effects of which will remain for years and extend to the Lac-Saint-Pierre Biosphere Reserve. of UNESCO.
-30-
For informations :
Alain Saladzius
President
514 924-2013
presidency@fondationrivieres.org
