Richelieu River - Evaluation of wastewater treatment systems 2014-2016
A first regional portrait of the performance of wastewater treatment systems for Fondation Rivières
Visible fecal pollution and worrying water quality: this is what canoeists were confronted with in 2017 during an event on the Richelieu River. This is also what motivated the Fondation Rivières to undertake an evaluation of wastewater treatment systems at the scale of the Richelieu River watershed and the Saint-Laurent zone (between Longueuil and the MRC Pierre-de-Saurel ) in order to identify sources of municipal pollution.
Such an evaluation had never been carried out in such detail in Quebec before. At the time, access to raw wastewater treatment monitoring data was difficult and the information generally presented was formatted in such a way as not to worry citizens.
Fort de Chambly, Richelieu River – Credit: Axel RD
Services
- Data compilation Monitoring system for municipal water sanitation works (SOMAE)
- Interpretation of diagrams and tracking data
- Telephone interviews with many water sanitation services
Partners and collaborators
- Richelieu River Basin Consultation and Development Committee (COVABAR)
- 22 cities and municipalities operating wastewater treatment systems
Methodology
Evaluating the performance of wastewater treatment systems involves interpreting structure monitoring data over several years and at the watershed scale. However, this data was only available in the form of annual reports, segmented by works. A tedious work of structuring and manual data entry was therefore undertaken by the Fondation Rivières in order to draw up an accurate portrait of the situation between 2008 and 2016. This work made it possible to have a good idea of the trends and the extent of the problematic in terms of wastewater treatment on the Richelieu River and in a portion of the river.
In addition to carrying out quantitative assessments based on public data, Fondation Rivières contacted municipalities operating sanitation works. The objective: to validate the findings drawn from monitoring data and to know the actions taken by municipalities to resolve their wastewater treatment issues.
Duration of the study
The evaluation of wastewater treatment systems took place from September 2017 to April 2018.
Findings
01.
17 systems experienced substantial overflow frequencies, including 9 cases judged to be serious.
02.
At least 10 stations are expected to be upgraded, including two on a priority basis.
03.
The responsibilities shared between MAMOT and MDDELCC (respectively, financing and work authorizations) are problematic.
Less than a quarter of the wastewater treatment systems studied offered good performance in terms of treatment and overflow.
Repercussions of this first series of studies
Many issues were highlighted in this performance evaluation of wastewater treatment systems, both in terms of water governance and the poor distribution of funding by the government. The report acted like an electric shock on municipal administrations, which were made aware of their role to play in reducing overflows and protecting waterways.
The COVABAR supported the conclusions and recommendations of the report and collaborated with the Fondation Rivières on certain issues raised, including that of very high overflow frequencies.
The working method developed during this project served as a basis for subsequent projects to evaluate wastewater treatment systems, particularly those carried out for the CARA, OBVBM, APLTI and GROBEC.
