Ontario's Ministry of Environment 'highly concerned' about Hamilton's new sewage leak

Ontario's Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) says it is "highly concerned" to hear about yet another instance of sewage flowing straight into the Hamilton Harbour.

This comes after the city of Hamilton announced Monday it learned 11 homes near Rutherford Avenue and Myrtle Avenue in Ward 3 have been flushing their wastewater straight into Lake Ontario since 1996. The exact amount of sewage is unclear.

In late November, the city found a separate sewage leak — roughly 337 million litres of sewage spilled into harbourfront since 1996 from 50 properties near Wentworth Street North and Burlington Street East, also in Ward 3.

"We are highly concerned by incidences of leaked sewage into Hamilton Harbour and ensuring the causes of these spills are identified and effectively dealt with," MECP spokesperson Lindsay Davidson told CBC Hamilton.

He said the city notified the ministry of the new spill on Monday and have been told the city plans to complete repairs as soon as possible.

"The ministry will continue to follow up to ensure these repairs are completed and determine if further assessment of the sewage infrastructure is needed," he said.

The city is waiting for the province to issue an order to clean both sewage spills. It has a vacuum truck near Rutherford Avenue and Myrtle Avenue to stop any more wastewater from flowing into Lake Ontario.

"The ministry will ensure that this new information is addressed in an order when issued," Davidson said.

City says it tried to be proactive

The discovery of the latest sewage leak came after the city said it tried to be proactive.

Winters told reporters on Monday after the leak in late November, Hamilton Water piloted a risk-based inspection program that focused on potential cross-connected pipe sections.

Through that inspection, workers noticed an odour coming from a connection near Rutherford Avenue and Myrtle Avenue, which led to the discovery of the latest leak.

It's unclear how much of a negative impact the two most recent leaks have had on wildlife in the harbour.

Native fish species like northern pike, stocked walleye, largemouth bass, sunfish and yellow perch, as well as non-native species like common carp, goldfish and rudd can be found in the harbour.

Hilary Prince, a spokesperson for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, previously told CBC Hamilton most of the native species by the harbour are in decline because of the state of the water there.

She also said fish that do thrive near the harbour only do so because they're "largely tolerant of degraded water quality conditions, including high turbidity, or cloudiness of the water, and low dissolved oxygen."

"Native species like gizzard shad and brown bullhead are hyper-abundant in Hamilton Harbour compared to other areas of Lake Ontario likely because of their tolerance for poor water quality conditions," Prince said.