Ottawa's wastewater treatment plant loses power for nearly 24 hours during the storm

The city of Ottawa says some of the city's water and wastewater facilities lost power during this week's freezing rainstorm, but city officials insist there is no impact to the drinking water.

The Robert O. Pickard Environmental Centre lost power for nearly 24 hours during the storm, which "partially reduced" treatment quality. 

The facility on Green Creek Road receives and treats wastewater from across the city before discharging treated effluent to the Ottawa River.

In a memo to council, Infrastructure and Water Services general manager Tammy Rose says that during the power outage, "critical processes were powered by diesel generators" to continue to treat wastewater at a "reduced quality."

"The plant operations responded as expected; however, when the treatment quality is impacted, the Regulations classify this as a by-pass, and staff have reported the event to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks," Rose said.

"It is important to note that ROPEC is located downstream of the City’s two drinking water treatment plants and therefore, there was no impact to the City’s drinking water."

Municipalities downstream from the city of Ottawa were notified.

The Robert O. Pickard Environment Centre lost power at 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Power was restored on Thursday at 3:30 p.m.

Meantime the Laporte Sanitary Pumping Station on Laporte Street lost power for about 25 minutes on Wednesday.  Staff brought in a portable generator to restore power.

"During the utility power outage, the pumping station overflowed to the local storm sewer. As a result, approximately 10 cubic meters of sewage spilled into the storm sewer," Rose said.

"Staff immediately responded and attempted to prevent the discharge and clean up the spill"

The station does not currently have a backup generator, but a capital project is underway to install permanent backup power and other upgrades at the site.

The spill has been reported to the Ministry of Environment, Parks and Climate Change.

The Lemieux and Britannia water treatment plans worked through the storm to provide "continuous clean and safe drinking water," Rose said, adding all drinking water pumping stations and six communal well systems functioned "as intended and without any service interruptions."

Rose says staff will monitor all facilities over the weekend, and continue working with the Ministry of Environment, Ottawa Public Health and Hydro Ottawa.

North Grenville

North Grenville's mayor says the township's two pump stations "overflowed" Thursday morning.

"That made for some difficulties as we worked to make sure all of the water that's discharge to the Rideau River is treated, but that just wasn't possible," Mayor Nancy Peckford said, adding the spill has been reported to the Ministry of Environment.