Gatineau won't treat septic-tank waste
Outaouais rural residents told to build their own sewage plant
BY DAVE ROGERS, THE OTTAWA CITIZENFEBRUARY 20, 2010
The City of Gatineau has decided to stop treating septic tank waste from the Gatineau Hills and the Pontiac at the end of 2010, leaving more than 45,000 rural Outaouais residents without sewage treatment.
MRC Pontiac Warden Michael McCrank said Friday the change is likely to mean more West Quebec septic tank waste being trucked to Ottawa and possibly New York for treatment and disposal.
Gatineau Councillor Alain Riel said the city's plant on Notre-Dame Street has reached its capacity and it is time for rural residents to build their own sewage-treatment plant.
"We are up to a quarter-million people now in Gatineau and the city is booming," Riel said. "We have a plan to modernize our plant, but it hasn't been done yet. They have to take care of their own sewage on their territory.
"They asked for an 18- to 24-month extension of the sewage treatment contract and we agreed to a year."
Robert Bussière, the warden of MRC des Collines, said construction of a new treatment plant won't be done this year.
Most households in the rural part of the Outaouais rely on septic tanks that have to be pumped out every two to three years.
"We will deal with disposal of septic-tank waste when the time comes," Bussière said. "Right now I have no idea where it will go."
McCrank, the Pontiac warden, said there is no quick solution to the disposal problem.
"The material is now de-watered and treated in Gatineau or Ottawa to take out the heavy metals and some of it has been taken to New York state," McCrank said. "In the rural areas, historically, we have been dumping it into trench landfill sites.
"Quebec has closed the trench landfills because they decided it wasn't acceptable practice anymore. There is a proposal from Campbell's Bay Cement to de-water it and turn it into fertilizer."
Felice Petti, manager of environmental services for the City of Ottawa, said the city would treat West Quebec septic waste for $23 a cubic metre, more than three times the cost of Ottawa sewage. Petti said there has been little demand for sewage treatment from municipalities outside Ottawa since the prices increased in 2009.
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Posted on February 22nd