Excessive rain causing Midland to dump raw sewage into Georgian Bay
by Andrew Mendler Midland Mirror
Over the past four years the Town of Midland has discharged 1.3 million litres of raw sewage into Georgian Bay.
During severe storms, the sanitary sewer system gets overwhelmed by the inflow of storm water, given the fact that some storm sewers and sump pumps are improperly connected to the system. When this happens, the system bypasses sewage into the Midland Harbour.
On Aug. 4, excess rainfall resulted in the town releasing 456,000 litres of sanitary sewage into Georgian Bay.
“This would be like having over 4,000, 31-foot boats dumping their holding tanks all over a one-hour period right at the town dock,” said Andy Campbell, director of engineering and wastewater services. “Not out in the harbour, like 20 feet from the edge of the dock.”
One discharge location is directly off the town dock, another bypass release is on William Street just south of Bay Street and the third is overflow from the wastewater treatment plant.
Raw, untreated sewage is discharged from the first two locations, while the third location releases partial treated, chlorinated mixture.
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