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This is what 8 billion litres of raw sewage would look like

Eight billion is a big number. In fact, our brains find it hard to truly comprehend a number that large.

On Tuesday, Montreal mayor Denis Coderre confirmed that the city will dump eight billion litres of raw sewage into the St. Lawrence River beginning 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

READ MORE: Montreal sewage dump to start at midnight

So what does that look like?

Well, it would take almost an hour for that amount of water to fall down Niagara Falls — both American and Horseshoe. And it could fill 3,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Beautiful Niagara Falls. Now imagine instead of water that was raw sewage spilling over the escarpment — for almost one hour straight. John Moore/Getty Images

And giving it a Canadian twist, it could fill about 200,000 NHL hockey rinks.

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Imagine 200,000 NHL hockey rinks filled with raw sewage. ave Sandford/Getty Images

Basically, eight billion litres of raw sewage is a lot. And it’s about to start flowing into the St. Lawrence, a river that Environment Canada calls, “a priceless jewel of our natural heritage.

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