Email letter from Richmond Village Association 
to Ottawa Mayor and Councillors (October 27, 2004):

                        -------- Original Message --------
                                                                           
Subject:   RICHMOND FORCEMAIN'S LATEST FAILURE        
Date:   Wed, 27 Oct 2004 22:25:13 -0400            
From:   Harvey.Snyder@consulting.fujitsu.com       
To:   Bob.Chiarelli@ottawa.ca, Glenn.Brooks@ottawa.ca,
Herb.Kreling@ottawa.ca, Jan.Harder@ottawa.ca, Gord.Hunter@ottawa.ca,      
Eli.El-Chantiry@ottawa.ca, Doug.Thompson@ottawa.ca, Maria.Mcrae@ottawa.ca,      
Jacques.Legendre@ottawa.ca, Rainer.Bloess@ottawa.ca, Rob.Jellett@ottawa.ca,  
Peter.Hume@ottawa.ca, Rick.Chiarelli@ottawa.ca, Clive.Doucet@ottawa.ca,  
Georges.Bedard@ottawa.ca, Michel.Bellemare@ottawa.ca, Diane.Holmes@ottawa.ca, 
Peggy.Feltmate@ottawa.ca, Shawn.Little@ottawa.ca, Alex.Cullen@ottawa.ca, 
Diane.Deans@ottawa.ca, Janet.Stavinga@ottawa.ca, (and others)  
                                                                           
CC:   pn@birchallnorthey.com                     
                                                                           
Re:   RICHMOND FORCEMAIN'S LATEST FAILURE

On the afternoon of 26 October, as city engineers and their consultants were preparing for the
third open house of the Class Environmental Assessment for the Trail Road Leachate Management
project, the Richmond wastewater forcemain failed yet another time. What were they going to
propose as the prefered leachate option? Another forcmain pipeline of course.

The Richmond forcemain has failed many times in its 20 year lifetime, yet this is the pipe into which
the city wants to introduce Munster Hamlet sewage - pumping it through the aquifer serving more
than 1000 privately owned shallow wells. It is not yet known when the longitudinal fracture actually
began to appear, nor is it known how much sewage spilled into the Jock river before it was 
detected. I await a report, which I will share with you, from Richard Hewitt tomorrow.

Sewage will now, and until further notice, be pumped into cell C of the Richmond lagoons - the
so called Richmond Conservation Area. But the people living down-wind won't need me to tell them
that its there. 

Council approved the Munster forcemain on the basis of questionable evidence and general 
indifference. One wonders if they would do the same thing today.

What needs to happen now is:

MoE should order a stop work on the construction of the Munster forcemain and pumping station
and conduct an audit of the conduct of the Class EA and the application for and issue of the C of A
to the city of Ottawa.

Ottawa council should revisit the Munster decision in the light of heightened awareness of public 
health and safety. They should also determine through an independent review whether the Class EA
process was properly executed. If not, disciplinary action should follow.

What should be done is to install on-site facilities at Munster, Richmond and Trail Road, and abandon
all existing forcemain trunk lines whether they are 20 years old or 5 months old. Please, lets get it 
right before someone dies.

Some pictures of  the failure site, North of the Jock at the Richmond
Nursery, are attached.


R.A. Harvey Snyder, P.Eng.
President
Richmond Village Association