Reports on untreated sewage

• A gate on the outfall sewer was closed to store sewage during scheduled sewer work that was taking place on the combined and outfall sewers on Lombard.
• Once the work was complete, the sewer was to have been pumped dry before reopening the gate.
• Unintentionally, some sewage was left in the pipe between the pump-out manhole and the gate chamber.
• When the crew opened the gate, the sewage in the pipe started to drain to the river. Once the crew realized that some sewage was still in the pipe, they immediately closed the gate, preventing any further discharge.
• Operating protocols have been improved to prevent this from occurring again.
• Incident reported to Manitoba Conservation, Manitoba Environmental Accident Reporting Line and Environment Canada.

• During a routine maintenance check at 2:30 pm on December 9, 2011, the maintenance coordinator noticed a small discharge of flow out of the Woodlands Crescent storm relief sewer flap gate which leads to the outfall pipe on Sturgeon Creek.
• A crew was dispatched and arrived at 3:00 p.m. They found a partial blockage of grease and rags in the Portage Avenue 250 millimetre wastewater sewer. This caused sewage to build up in the wastewater sewer and overflow through the storm relief sewer connection, through the flap gate and into the 1200 millimetre outfall pipe.
• The blockage was cleared by 6:30 p.m.
• Incident reported to Manitoba Conservation, Manitoba Environmental Accident Reporting Line and Environment Canada.

• Crews discovered a small flow discharging into the Red River from the combined sewer outfall pipe on the north side of St Johns Park at 11:30 am on October 21, 2011.
• Crews closed the sluice gate on the St. Johns combined relief pipe at 12:25 pm, preventing any further discharge to the Red River.
• Crews investigated the St. Johns drainage area and found a blockage in the combined sewer at Redwood Ave and Salter St.  They removed the blockage at 4:20 pm on October 21, 2011.
• Incident reported to Manitoba Conservation, Manitoba Environmental Accident Reporting Line and Environment Canada.

St. Norbert lift station, 25 De La Digue Ave.

0.12 megalitres or 120,000 litres

• An alarm was received for St. Norbert lift station on Friday at 4:48 p.m.
• A Wastewater Services crew was onsite at 5:25 p.m. and discovered pumps were not running due to a Hydro power failure. They closed the overflow gate to prevent a raw sewage discharge and began storing sewage in the sewer pipe system.
• While staff worked to get a trailer mounted generator functioning, sewage levels in the sewer system approached a critical elevation. To reduce the risk of sewer backup in basements, they had to lower levels in the sewer by opening the overflow gate on two brief occasions – from 7:00 - 7:10 pm and from 8:23 - 8:33 pm.
• By 8:54 p.m., the crew restored temporary power to the sewage lift pumps with the generator.
• Hydro restored power to the station at 04:12 a.m. on October 8.
• Incident reported to Manitoba Conservation, Manitoba Environmental Accident Reporting Line and Environment Canada.

• 311 received email at 2:11 p.m. on Friday, May 20, reporting discharge from outfall and created service request.
• Environmental Standards staff opened service request on Tuesday, May 24 and investigated.
• Wastewater collection branch notified on Wednesday, May 25 at 10:00 a.m. Crew dispatched and found blockage of grease and rags in sewer causing diluted raw sewage to build up and overflow through outfall pipe. Blockage removed at 12:05 p.m.
• Lag time between notification and resolution due to oversight in internal protocol. Response process reviewed and will be improved for future similar events.
• Incident reported to Manitoba Conservation, Manitoba Environmental Accident Reporting Line and Environment Canada.