WWTF

Register for Sewage Bypass Alerts

The City of Greater Sudbury has provided a Sewage Bypass Alert Notification, whereby you can register to receive email notification whenever there is a sewage bypass or wastewater overflow at any of their wastewater treatment facilities.

The Vermilion River Stewardship (VRS) lobbied for this real-time Alert to ensure those families relying on the receiving lakes and rivers for their household water and/or recreational activities are notified whenever a bypass occurs, and can take appropriate action.

You are encouraged to register here to receive Alerts when a sewage bypass or spill occurs.  All bypass events will be posted at this location for a period of 7 days after the bypass has ended. Monthly bypass and overflow reports are also available on the Stewardship page.

Sudbury Waste Water Treatment Facilities

There are 9 Waste Water Treatment Facilities (WWTF), 2 Industrial WWTFs, 3 sewage lagoons and several lift stations located within the Vermilion River Watershed?  5 of these WWTF are upstream of the public water intake facility just below Cascade Falls, on the Vermilion River.   This public water intake services 13,000 people in Lively, Walden, Copper Cliff and Whitefish.

The City of Sudbury was listed in the 2009 EcoJustice Report, “Flushing Out the Truth – Sewage Dumping in Ontario”, as the 4th highest in Ontario for releasing untreated and under-treated sewage into the environment.   The map below shows all the WWTF & Sewage Lagoons located within the Vermilion River Watershed.

A Public Forum was held in the Fall of 2009, with the purpose of raising an awareness of the challenges, and to look for solutions.   Since then, the City of Sudbury WWT have worked diligently to minimize the number of by-passes, and has introduced a new by-law to make it illegal for eves trough downspouts to be hooked into the public sewer system.  The City is also conducting smoke testing to find all those illegal hook-ups.   The problem is aggravated when heavy rain events occur, and these illegal hook-ups cause sewers to be overwhelmed.  To avoid back-ups into residence basements, the effluent must be bypassed into the environment.  It will take time to find all the hook-ups, however, the City is continuing to make progress in improving the system.

Eco-Justice – Flushing Out the Truth – Sewage Dumping in Ontario

Rainy days are anything but cleansing for Ontario’s waterways and Great Lakes — these fresh water resources double as sewage dumps when municipal systems are overburdened.  For more information on this topic, you can visit the EcoJustice.

National Sewage Report Card III

Ecojustice’s work on sewage has brought national attention to the issue of sewage dumping and poor treatment, most notably our leading series of national sewage report cards.  For more information on this topic, you can visit EcoJustice.

City of Sudbury Waste Water Treatment Facilities (WWTF)