Ontario issued new orders on Monday, requiring Hamilton councillors to come up with a plan for the remediation and future monitoring of Chedoke Creek following a 24-billion-litre spill into the waterway.
The orders from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation, and Parks also ask the city to submit a complete evaluation of the impact of four years of sewage leaking into the Creek and neighbouring Cootes Paradise.
The deadline for both reports is Feb. 14, 2020.
Last week, City of Hamilton Public Works General Manager Dan McKinnon told Global News that a “glitch” with their automation process was the likely reason billions of tonnes of sewage leaked into Chedoke Creek over four-plus years.
“There’s routine maintenance, and there have been inspections of facilities,” said McKinnon.
“These facilities are large and complex and they are often in locations that are very difficult to get to. So what ends up happening is we rely on our systems.”
Public Works said a bypass gate in the sewer overflow tank that should have been closed was open during that time period.
The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) confirmed to Global News they were made aware of the problem in July 2018 and said they are continuing to investigate the incident, as well as advising the city on the remediation of the Creek.
Councillor motions to hire physical Inspectors
As the deadline from Queen’s Park made its way to the city, councillors were already in session for the general issues committee on Monday, with the city’s 2020 water, wastewater and stormwater budget front and centre.
Initially, the budget called for a four per cent increase in residential water bills for 2020, adding up to about $29.00 for the average customer.
However, that went up another .25 percent after Coun. Tom Jackson proposed another increase to pay for five staffers to “physically” inspect the city’s sewer mains, valves, and water outfalls in light of the Chedoke Creek spill.
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Jackson said through calls and letters, his constituents were “dumbfounded and livid” that a traditional type of inspection maintenance operator wasn’t providing annual or semi-annual physical inspections of nine combined sewer overflow tanks.
“I can’t get over the fact that we relied solely on automation,” Jackson said.
“Obviously automation failed us with the gate switch, or whatever it was, that malfunctioned was left open for four-and-a-half years.”
Ward 9 councillor Brad Clark seconded Jackson’s motion, saying he found it disconcerting that 71 wastewater pumping stations had no monitoring.
The motion carried unopposed.
Motion for public apology on Wednesday
Councillors will meet again on Wednesday, with Ward 1’s Maureen Wilson and Ward 3’s Nrinder Nann presenting a motion to publicly release “any and all reports” and “issue a formal apology” to residents.
When the spill came to council in 2018, a majority of councillors opted to keep it under wraps as per recommendations from legal council.
Wilson and Nann, in a joint statement on Friday, said they were bound as councillors during an in-camera session not to divulge what was said about the leak.
However the pair want to make amends with their motion on Wednesday, saying the decision to keep it a secret “continues to weigh heavily on us.”
Ward 8 councillor John Paul Danko says he will support Wilson and Nann’s motion for an apology, saying it’s “the first step towards regaining that trust” with residents.
“People are very angry about this. They feel betrayed,” Danko told Global News.
“I think as a council, like I said, we need to work at regaining that public trust. And I think apology is really the first step towards that.”
When asked whether someone should lose a job over the Chedoke Creek incident, Danko said he couldn’t speculate.
“I know that our public works staff and senior management take this extremely, extremely seriously,” Danko said. “But, you know, I think it’s too early to speculate on who did what when.”
Burlington’s Mayor says trust with Hamilton “eroded”
Also on Monday, Burlington’s mayor weighed in on her displeasure with Hamilton city council’s decision to keep the 24-billion-litre sewage spill a secret for four-plus years.
Marianne Meed Ward told Global News that she learned about the incident the same day most of the public did — through an online admission on the city’s website.
“This is a shared watercourse,” said Meed Ward.
“We have the Royal Botanical Gardens, which is shared with Hamilton. You know, we want to be good neighbours and good neighbours talk to each other when there’s a problem.”
Burlington shares a significant portion of Cootes Paradise with Hamilton, which includes wetlands and a 600-hectare wildlife sanctuary managed by the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG).
The head of natural areas for the RBG, Tys Theijsmeijer, said the spill from Chedoke Creek was like an “eraser” which put a restoration plan started in the ’90s “back to ground zero.”
Meed Ward called that contamination “astonishing and mindboggling.”
“This is a public safety, health and safety issue,” said Meed Ward, “It’s also something that, because it’s been kept from the public as well as area municipalities and partners, it erodes trust.”
In light of the Chedoke Creek spill, the mayor is calling on the province for “mandatory” public reporting of any land, air or water contamination anywhere in the province.