Iqaluit could be fined for sewage spill

AARON SPITZER

IQALUIT — The City of Iqaluit is under investigation after spilling several hundred tonnes of sewage into the bay this spring.

Neil Scott, the head of enforcement for Environment Canada in Yellowknife, called the spills “reasonably serious.”

Environment Canada is investigating three spills, which occurred at two of the city’s sewage lift stations between April and June. The spills resulted in sewage-laden water pouring into Frobisher Bay.

Scott said the investigation will take several weeks, and could result in charges being laid against the city.

Spilling sewage into the ocean is a violation of the federal Fisheries Act. The maximum fine for each spill is $200,000.

Matthew Hough, the city’s public works director, said the spills resulted from failures of the pumps at the lift stations, which are located on the edge of Koojesse Inlet.

The stations are designed with outfall pipes so sewage can overflow into the inlet if the pumps fail. Otherwise, he said, sewage would fill the stations or back up into people’s houses.

“Pumps fail, for a variety of different reasons,” he said.

The pump failures are part of Environment Canada’s investigation.

Hough said that when the pumps broke down an alarm was triggered, alerting city employees to the problem. The employees responded immediately, he said, fixing the pumps and stemming the flow of effluent into the ocean.

The city then filed a spill report with the Nunavut spill line, Hough said.

Townspeople, however, were not told about the spills.

“We didn’t feel it was necessary,” Hough said.

“There was nothing being hidden here from anyone.”

– Matthew Hough,

Iqaluit public works director

The volumes of the spills were small and “very dilute,” he said. “We believe that residents don’t have a reason to be worried. There was nothing being hidden here from anyone.”

In southern Canada, several large cities, including Halifax and Victoria, dump their raw sewage directly into the ocean.

When asked why Iqaluit seemed to be being treated differently than those municipalities, Hough responded, “Bloody good question.”

“I hope Environment Canada and others put this situation in perspective with those other cities in the south,” he said.

“We’ve been begging a lot of the regulatory groups to work with us, not against us, in these situations. I just hope that Environment Canada takes that approach as well… I hope that we’re able to discuss it with them in something other than a court arena.”

In 1993, the government of the Northwest Territories was fined $300,000 after a dike broke at the Iqaluit sewage lagoon, resulting in millions of litres of sewage pouring into Frobisher Bay.

Hough said it was “absurd” to compare that massive spill with the overflows this year.