Wastewater discharges have decreased in recent years in Quebec, but several municipalities are now struggling to upgrade their infrastructures to adapt to the context of climate change, while others are trying by various means to prevent a shortage of drinking water on their territory.
Last year, 36,391 wastewater spills occurred in Quebec waterways, particularly in the St. Lawrence. A significant number, but which remains 31% lower than that of 2020, according to data compiled by the Rivières Foundation. Moreover, the intensity of spills per capita has been declining for five years, notes the organization.
“The fact remains that, on average over the past five years, there have been 52,800 spills per year. It’s huge,” says the president of the Rivières Foundation, engineer Alain Saladzius. The latter thus considers that major investments are still necessary to reduce the number of these waste water discharges.
However, several municipalities fear a lack of funding from Quebec and Ottawa to update their water infrastructure. This is particularly the case for Longueuil. The City estimates that it will have to find a billion dollars in this direction by 2030 to update its infrastructures responsible for the supply of drinking water in the sector and the treatment of wastewater. An estimate that has ballooned over the past two years due to inflation.
“For thirty years, there has not been sufficient asset maintenance to maintain the state of the infrastructures or to ensure that the infrastructures are brought up to standard” for water treatment in Longueuil, which serve several cities on the South Shore . By repairing and expanding its infrastructure, the municipality hopes to “minimize” wastewater discharges into the St. Lawrence while meeting the needs of a growing population, explains the Mayor of Longueuil. , Catherine Fournier.
The City of Montreal, for its part, plans to commission an ozonation unit in 2025 to disinfect the wastewater that passes through the Jean-R.-Marcotte treatment plant, in the east of the island. In particular, this will make it possible to eliminate faecal coliforms and viruses found in wastewater, as well as a large part of emerging pollutants, such as drugs and antibiotics. The bill for the project, first valued at $200 million in 2008, has jumped over the years to reach $717 million.
“We will have the largest ozonation plant in the world, by far,” says the head of water on the executive committee, Maja Vodanovic, to justify this investment. “And it’s moving at a good pace. We are on time, ”said the elected official.
Expected investments
However, the City will have to make other investments in the coming years to make its water infrastructure more efficient and less polluting, indicates Ms.me Vodanovic. The elected official therefore hopes that the financial assistance from Quebec and Ottawa will meet the needs of the metropolis. Otherwise, “we won’t make it,” she notes.
“You have to be imaginative to find solutions that will prevent it from becoming more and more expensive” to treat wastewater, said Réjean Vigneault, director of the infrastructure management service at the City of Repentigny. The municipality of Lanaudière thus participates in various “research projects” aimed at reducing the energy needs of its water treatment facilities in order to save money while contributing to the fight against climate change.
Meanwhile, 81 municipalities are still discharging their wastewater without treating it, thus defying the provincial regulations in force. Several of these small municipalities are, however, in the process of correcting the situation after years of waiting, when government assistance is there.
“We still haven’t had the money from Quebec,” said the mayor of Sainte-Rose-du-Nord, Claude Riverin, with a sigh. The municipality of Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean has wanted for years to install a purification system to prevent the dumping of its wastewater into the Saguenay River. Construction costs continue to rise in the meantime, notes the mayor.
“Each year that we wait, it costs more, and we continue to pollute,” he laments.
Prevent a shortage
Some municipalities are also facing drinking water shortages, sometimes for years. This is particularly the case of Saint-Lin-Laurentides, in Lanaudière. After experiencing a real estate boom in recent years, the municipality adopted an interim control resolution in December 2021 to freeze all residential projects of four or more units.
This measure has since been extended to constructions of three or more dwellings, while the municipal council has submitted a request to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing in the hope of extending this temporary measure until the end of the summer 2023.
“It paid off,” rejoices the mayor of Saint-Lin-Laurentides, Mathieu Maisonneuve, who notes “that no citizen ran out of water this summer,” unlike the previous summer. The current moratorium does not represent a lasting solution for the municipality, which wishes to continue to develop its territory, however recognizes Mr. Maisonneuve.
“It’s not a problem of the availability of water underground, but of the capacity to produce water for the population when they need it most,” explains the mayor, who relies on a $9 million loan by-law to develop a drinking water production plant south of the city.
Meanwhile, in Montérégie, the mayor of Clarenceville, Serge Beaudoin, hopes to be able to launch a call for tenders in early 2023 to build a pipeline that would connect the municipality of 11,000 inhabitants to the water treatment plant in the neighboring municipality of Henryville. However, he is waiting for this project – whose bill could reach $23 million – to obtain the approvals and financial support from Quebec necessary for its realization.
“By going to a call for tenders, that does not mean that the government will give us enough money to carry out the project,” apprehends Mr. Beaudoin. However, “it’s been more than 15 years that they [les résidents] ask for drinking water. There are people, I don’t know how they manage to take their shower,” says Mr. Beaudoin.