Environmental officials confirmed Monday that it was raw sewage that leaked into the Capilano River on the North Shore, but it is still unclear what the source of the leak was.
The District of North Vancouver reported the leak last week near Fullerton Avenue in West Vancouver.
It said the sewage was leaving a private property and entered the river through a storm drain outfall pipe.
The Squamish Nation made the leak public last Friday, but the Ministry of Environment said it was reported six days before that.
Crews have deployed sandbags and pumps and officials said the spill is now contained.
Andrew Smith, an Environmental Emergency Response Officer, told Global News Monday that further testing is needed to find the source.
“We’re hoping to have more information in the next 24 hours,” he said.
“It could come from a variety of sources so now we’re testing them all to determine what the potential source is.”
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The private property, Woodcroft Estates, is managed by Wynford Strata Management. In a statement to Global News, the company said it became aware of the issue on March 7.
It alerted the authorities at the District of North Vancouver, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Vancouver Coastal Health, and the Squamish Nation and took steps to call in contractors to determine the source of the leak.
Wynford said dye tests have been conducted daily, including testing of various plumbing lines.
“At this time, there is still no clear connection between any of the sanitary lines connected to the Woodcroft Estates buildings, and the leak found in the culvert,” the company said in a statement.
“More specifically, dye testing on sanitary lines within the Woodcroft Estates complex show sanitary flows moving to sanitary manholes downstream, and testing on storm lines show storm flows moving to storm manholes downstream, and also to the culvert as intended.
“To date, we have not seen a situation where dye put into a sanitary line was later found in the culvert, however, work will continue as required.”
Smith said officials from the Ministry of Environment were on site last week and continue to be there this week.
“We had people attending the site this weekend to make sure there was no product going into the river,” he added.
“At present, our priority has been to stop it while the investigation to find the source is ongoing.”
— with files from Darrian Matassa-Fung
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