An unnamed city employee who was suspended for not reporting a sewage spill at Petrie Island in the summer of 2006 has been fired.
Ottawa's city manager suspended the employee Tuesday for his role in how the city dealt with the spill - an announcement that came hours after the issue was brought up at the provincial legislature.
The beach at Petrie Island, located in Ottawa's east end, was closed for 45 days in August 2006 after a valve malfunctioned, spilling 900,000 cubic metres of biological waste into the Ottawa River.
Spill not reported immediately
Ontario's Environment Minister told the provincial legislature early Tuesday that the City of Ottawa did not make the province aware of the situation at Petrie Island until last May.
"(The sewage spill) needed to be reported to the ministry . . . and it wasn't," City Manager Kent Kirkpatrick told reporters late Tuesday afternoon.
Kirkpatrick, however, had previously told the media the City had contacted the provincial government within days of becoming aware of the situation on August 15, 2006.
"In this case there was definitely a disconnect between lower staff and senior management," Orleans Councillor Bob Monette told CTV Ottawa, moments after learning of the firing.
Monette says it's hard to say if more employees will be disciplined for how the situation was handled.
"There might be other ones that will be suspended or fired but it's too early to say so right now. There's a lot of questions that need to be answered," he said.
Learn from the mistake, says riverkeeper
An Ottawa riverkeeper told CTV Ottawa she hopes the public will not be left in the dark if a sewage spill happens again.
"If there's one thing that falls out of this, I'd like to see the public being notified immediately after any sewage spill from any of the municipalities," said Meredith Brown, who monitors the health of the Ottawa River.
"If there's one person that's important to know, obviously the Medical Officer of Health is very important, but the people who are using the river -- swimming in the river -- they need to know when there's raw sewage going into the river," she said.
Possible independent review
Coun. Monette planned to introduce a motion to council Wednesday afternoon, proposing an independent review of the matter.
"The independent's review study will be important -- questions will be answered and I think once we get to the bottom of this . . . we will be able to make some very strong decisions and directions for the future," he said.
"I think a lot of people would have liked to have known that there was a spillage that had happened."
Although several municipal staff members knew the reason for the high levels of E. coli at the beach, it took nearly two years for them to tell the public.
The problem stemmed from an overflow pipe in downtown Ottawa that became stuck open after a rainstorm in July 2006.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Norman Fetterley
