As most of you know by now, the City of Ottawa was fined a total of $562,500 on October 10th for two infractions under the Ontario Water Resources Act: 1) illegally spilling the equivalent of 350 Olympic-pools of raw sewage into the Ottawa River in 2006, and 2) failing to report the spill to the Ministry of Environment.
As you would expect, Ottawa Riverkeeper followed events leading up to and including this sentence with keen interest. As Riverkeeper, I am personally satisfied with the end result as it marks very significant progress on several fronts in protecting and ensuring the future health of the River.
First of all, the guilty finding verifies that the system actually works. In a time when enforcement activities across Canada are generally suffering from lack of resources or political will, Ontario’s Ministry of Environment has been successful in applying legislation to protect our waterways. I applaud the Ministry for pursuing this case with such diligence. I also applaud you, the public, for speaking out strongly, demonstrating once again that public involvement can play a valuable role in motivating a regulator to aggressively apply enforcement measures at its disposal.
Secondly, I feel that the fine imposed upon the City was significant enough to act as a deterrent, without being overly punitive. It sends a clear message that municipalities cannot regard their waterways as dumping stations for unlimited amounts of raw sewage. To those who argue that the fine ultimately comes from Ottawa’s taxpayers I can only ask, What is the alternative? There is none. Just as any city is held responsible for unsafe roads and bridges, it must also be held accountable for polluting its waterways. Such accountability ultimately leads to better municipalities.
Lastly, this case has given birth to a number of very positive developments: After every rain, city staff now check sewer valves to ensure that they have not jammed open. And staff will take greater responsibility to report all infractions to the Ministry. On a broader scale, the City has accepted accountability for polluting the Ottawa River, has made a commitment to repair and improve its sewage infrastructure, and has established a fund to do so. Both the Province and the federal government have made significant contributions to this fund. Today, thanks to successful legal action, polluting the River is a far more important political issue than it was before October 10.
In conclusion, I am encouraged by all these developments and congratulate those who played positive roles.
Meredith Brown
Ottawa Riverkeeper
