Winnipeg’s notoriety as a polluter of fresh water amped up this month after a raw sewage spill of nearly 230 million litres was discharged from the City of Winnipeg into the Red River over the course of at least 15 days.
Between Feb. 7 and Feb. 21, an outfall at 3100 Abinojii Mikanah (formerly called Bishop Grandin) discharged an estimated 228.39 million litres (or megalitres) of untreated human waste and other hazardous substances into the river, which flows into Lake Winnipeg.
A planned leakage test carried out by the city on Nov. 29, 2023, discovered that the integrity of two sewer pipes, installed across the river in 1970, were compromised. One pipe had a “significant leak,” resulting in an “unknown” amount of raw sewage entering the Red River for an “unknown” period of time. City workers “plugged the pipe,” according to incident details the city posts on its untreated sewage report webpage. The second pipe – into which sewage had been diverted – was believed to have “defects.” The city indicated it would “gather information to help us determine how to best move forward with the repair or replacement of these pipes.” Work on the pipes started this month.
Communities and commercial fishers along Lake Winnipeg are outraged and bracing for environmental fallout, a potential hit to their economies and disruption to their tourism sector, which includes angling.
Town of Winnipeg Beach mayor Pam Jackson called the sewage spill “shocking and horrific” and will likely lead to long term consequences for the community and the lake.
“It’s horrible news for our town, our residents and for our lake. Of course, this will contribute to what I expect will be significant, possibly toxic, algal blooms this year, which will affect the lake itself and everyone who enjoys Lake Winnipeg,” said Jackson. “The amount of nitrogen and phosphorous this is releasing into Lake Winnipeg is appalling and will have significant long term negative consequences. This will have a deleterious effect on our aquatic life, our fishers who make a living on the lake, the ecosystem and the overall health of our lake.”
As stewards of Lake Winnipeg, Jackson said we’re “failing miserably” on a lake under strain for years.
“This situation really speaks to the need for all politicians to have to courage and foresight to think of the long term good of their communities, and make decisions based on what will be good for their community over decades and not just over four years,” said Jackson. “That means maintaining and keeping in good repair all infrastructure, before it becomes so aged that we have these types of catastrophic events.”
Gimli mayor Kevin Chudd called the spill “shameful” and “disgusting” and said his community is concerned about the damaging effects the raw sewage will have on the environment, the commercial fishing industry and on tourism, which helps support the economic livelihood of the rural municipality.
“This is an environmental catastrophe,” said Chudd. And given the sewage spill continued unabated for a reported 15 days, he wonders how the situation “would have been handled if the flows were going south” rather than north.
Apart from understandable feelings of revulsion to the spill, Chudd said this is no time to be “adversarial.” Gimli would like to work collaboratively with Winnipeg to help it in any way possible to prevent raw sewage spills, which occur dozens of times every year. He’d also like to see the provincial and federal governments involved.
“It’s clearly evident the priority for us – and for a lot of people – is safeguarding one of the most precious natural resources we have – fresh water,” said the mayor. “This isn’t the first time there’s been a major spill. Unfortunately, it won’t be the last time. But we need to collaborate with all parties.”
Chudd said the RM hadn’t been informed by the city about the spill and council wants to see communication improved with municipalities downstream of Winnipeg.
Gimli councillor Andy Damm said he reached out to Winnipeg councillor Brian Mayes and discussed the incident with him and one of the city’s engineers. He asked that communication with the RM be “stepped up” as well as with First Nations communities on the lake.
“In the future water is going to be such a vital resource. I can see the potential for wars being fought over fresh water,” said Damm. “And here we are using Lake Winnipeg as a dumping ground. We can’t stand for this.”
The RM plans to hold a summit on the issue with First Nations communities, the Manitoba Metis Federation, other towns on the lake, the province and the city “if [the city] wishes to show up to something like this,” said Damm.
Commercial fisher Robert T. Kristjanson, who for decades has been calling attention to algal blooms on the lake, said he was left with a profound sense of shame after learning of the spill.
“We here along the shores of Lake Winnipeg will have to live with this monster of a spill,” said Kristjanson. “It’s so hypocritical of the City of Winnipeg to think that the people who live north of the city are unimportant. I’m so ashamed of Winnipeg and how they’re failing to address what they’re doing to our environment.”
Kristjanson added that he wonders why environmental laws don’t seem to apply to the city.
“I didn’t know we were in a country [i.e., region] separate from the rest of Canada in terms of laws,” he said. “Does the City of Winnipeg have special dispensation from the federal and provincial governments to pollute our waterways? My god, the city should be ashamed of themselves for what they’ve done to the rest of Manitoba.”
Lake Winnipeg commercial fisher and systems analyst Bill Buckels, who’s faced outright denial in the past when he’s reported to the province large volumes of fecal matter swirling off the coast of the Hecla-Grindstone region, said the city’s 15-day, non-stop raw sewage discharge is “absolutely outrageous.”
He’s questioning where the city’s contingency plan was when the spill was detected last November. And if there’s no contingency plan for something so critical as protecting the environment and human health from hazardous waste, why isn’t there one?
“To begin with, this is not some corporate entity called the city that should have had a contingency plan. Clearly, the accountable person, the mayor of Winnipeg Scott Gillingham, as well as all the people who work for him, should have had the sense to know in November their system was damaged, and that any contingency such as further overloading it would fail. This spill may have lasted 15 days, but the knowledge that the pipe had failed was evident in November,” said Buckels.
“There should have been a way at that time to re-direct sewage to a holding area of some kind like a lagoon or pond while they replaced the damaged pipes. Any system, whether it’s a computer system or a process of some sort – such as infection control in a tattoo parlour or a dishwasher to sterilize tableware in a restaurant – must have proper risk analyses and failovers.”
Buckels said there’s apparently no way of “turning off raw sewage” from going into the Red or Assiniboine rivers, and municipal, provincial and federal politicians have failed over the years to rectify that, preferring instead to run in “reactive mode.”
“Let’s be clear about what politicians care about: politicians care about perception because to them, perception is reality. They will not do any more than they have to in order to get people’s votes. At this point they’d rather put money into planting trees along a pretty river walk on the Red River, which – let’s face it – is just a big sewer for city waste to flow out to the lagoon they call Lake Winnipeg,” said Buckels. “Who designs a sewer system that has no requirement to safely turn off or redirect the shit? It’s obviously dysfunctional.”
David Driedger, the City of Winnipeg’s manager of Corporate Communications, said the two pipes that run under the river at the Fort Garry Bridge direct sewage from southwest Winnipeg to the South End Sewage Treatment Plant. In November the leaking 700 mm pipe was “immediately” taken out of service.
“The remaining pipe, an 800 mm pipe, was found to be in poor condition, but could still handle the flow across the river. Planning for a bypass system began at that time,” said Driedger. “The bypass system, made up of temporary new pipes, would allow us to continue directing sewage to the treatment plant. We could then take the existing pipes out of service until [they] could be permanently replaced.”
Work on the bypass system – sewage pipes laid across the Fort Garry Bridge – to restore sewage collection capacity started on Feb. 5, he said. On Feb. 7, two days after the work started, the second pipe (800 mm) failed.
“Due to this second failure, the work to assemble the bypass system over the bridge was accelerated,” said Driedger. “Provincial and federal agencies were notified of this environmental issue.”
Crews will be continuously monitoring the bypass system, making adjustments as necessary to ensure it’s reliable, he said.
“It’s expected the bypass system will be in place until the river-crossing pipes that failed can be replaced. Work to replace the pipes will begin right away, with construction continuing in 2025,” said Driedger. “Under normal circumstances, the work involved in building a bypass system of this type is very challenging and would take upwards of five weeks. It’s incredibly difficult work when you can’t turn things off to troubleshoot issues.”
The city has been posting information about the spill on its website to keep the public informed. And during open water season, the city samples river water quality and posts the results online.
A spokesperson for the provincial government, which regulates industry, said the situation is being monitored and an investigation has been launched, the details of which cannot be shared.
“Manitoba Environment and Climate Change is actively monitoring the situation. The pipe that is leaking is part of the City of Winnipeg’s South End Pollution Control Centre Environment Act Licence. The environmental compliance and enforcement branch has launched an investigation and details cannot be provided during an active investigation,” said the spokesperson. “The department is also monitoring upstream and downstream water quality to help assess environmental impacts. Manitoba has a strong regulatory framework in place to address water pollution, and these requirements are also incorporated into our Environment Act licensing process.”
Cecelia Parsons, spokesperson for the federal department of environment and climate change Canada, said a file on the sewage spill has been opened and that the ECCC takes pollution incidents and threats to the environment seriously.
“ECCC has a mandate to enforce federal environmental legislation aimed at preventing pollution and protecting wildlife and biodiversity in Canada. ECCC enforcement officers are responsible for administering and enforcing the pollution prevention provisions of the Fisheries Act, which prohibits the deposit of deleterious, or harmful, substances into water frequented by fish,” said Parsons. “ECCC enforcement officers have responded to the incident and a file has been opened. If there is sufficient evidence of an alleged violation, enforcement officers may take appropriate action in accordance with the compliance and enforcement policy for habitat and pollution provisions of the Fisheries Act.”
Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman MP James Bezan issued a press release Feb. 22 in which he said he was “disgusted” by the raw sewage breach that ran “unimpeded” since Feb. 7 into the Red River and Lake Winnipeg, and that the federal Liberals “must take an active role” to support Manitoba and Winnipeg and protect its waterways from future breaches.
“These waterways are vital to the economic prosperity and health of our communities. The sewage is polluting our iconic Lake Winnipeg, which is vital to Manitoba’s thriving inland commercial fishery, beautiful beaches, recreational activities, and is a source of drinking water for many communities,” said Bezan.
