‘Nobody should be exposed to it’: Riverview residents contend with sewage leak

A nasty smell from a Riverview brook is keeping area residents from going outside, and what appears to be raw sewage is flowing into a nearby waterway.

Amanda Crandall, the head of the neighbourhood watch, said Wednesday that residents have been complaining about the problem to the town for weeks.

“The smell is horrible. Nobody should be exposed to it, I can tell you that much,” she said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The smell is horrible. Nobody should be exposed to it, I can tell you that much," she said.

“You can see the waste, you can see feminine hygiene products. It’s all stuck in the trees along the side of the brook.”

She said the murky mess is flowing from a pipe into the brook right across from her house off Trites Road and contaminating the waterway. It’s creating a stench on mild days that she said is overwhelming.

“On the nice says, I can’t describe it,” she said. “You want to put your children outside, you want to go for a walk in those woods and you can’t.”

Crandall said the brook runs right behind Claude D. Taylor School, which her young daughter attends.

“The children actually, in the summer months or the early spring, they take field trips in those woods,” she said.

It’s unclear how long sewage has been seeping into the brook, but Crandall said at least 20 other residents have complained about the problem to the town since November.

“Nothing is getting done and no one is taking ownership of the issue,” she said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Nothing is getting done and no one is taking ownership of the issue," she said.

Colin Smith, who works for the Town of Riverview, said officials are aware of the problem and have been trying to source where the sewage is coming from for several weeks.

Crews worked to fix at least one source of the stench on Wednesday, but it might not be the only cause. Smith said the town will continue trying to pinpoint where the leak originates.

“At least it’s a step in the right direction. I am trying to be optimistic and have faith in the town that they are going to fix it,” said Crandall. “But right now, given the experience we have had I don’t have any faith that they are going to fix it right now.”

In the meantime, she said she will be staying indoors.

“The mess just keeps getting worse and worse down the street as the water gets more shallow.”