PATH OF 1997 LAGOON SPILL

  
 

"THE MORNING AFTER"

Road-side ditch and upper field (through trees), close to source.
         
   

Upper field, at road-crossing location, as flows begin to subside.

At observed peak of the flow, an estimated 120-ft swath (of two-inch depth), was crossing Copeland Road, and flowing into the private property to the south.

  
         
   

SIX DAYS LATER...

Green effluent is shown still draining off lower field, into ditch on North side of Copeland Road  ...and still pouring into the Jock River.

  
         
 

  UPSTREAM VIEW of JOCK RIVER, viewed
from Copeland Road Bridge - on Day Six
(March 23, 1997).

Sewage entry point (via road-side ditch) is at right foreground of this photo.)

Six days after spill, green sewage spill material, that traveled beneath the snow, is still evident on top of Jock River ice, long before ice break-up.

 

  
 
 
 

DOWNSTREAM VIEW of JOCK RIVER, viewed from Copeland Road Bridge - on Day Six (March 23, 1997).
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

At the time of the above photo, (taken six days after the spill occurred), it is apparent, by the extent of flows, on top of the ice, just how much sewage was released.

An official spokesman for the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton (RMOC) stated in the press, on March 20th, 1998:

  "The spill was contained and nothing leaked into the Jock River. If that had happened, we would have had a major incident"

These are the sorts of misrepresentations, used by the RMOC/City of Ottawa ---then and now--- to avoid facing the reality of having to do the right thing.

For more than a decade, ratepayers have been consistently subjected to this pattern of the City's disregard for the truth, and their dereliction of responsibility.

(At least, in the above instance, the Enforcement Branch of the Ministry of the Environment, charged the RMOC, which resulted in their paying a token fine of $30,000.)

  
 
 
 

 


  

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