The origin of two motor oil spills in the St. Lawrence River in Pointe-aux-Trembles is still unknown after the City of Montreal conducted its investigation of more than 160 commercial and industrial properties. To help elucidate the mystery, it is now calling on the Service de police de la ville de Montréal (SPVM).
On July 11 and 25, a slick of motor oil was found on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, near the Pointe-aux-Trembles marina. “The information gathered to date indicates that both incidents are linked to the same spill of motor oil in the storm sewer system,” the City said in a press release issued Wednesday afternoon.
“The inspections and analyses also made it possible to define the period and the sector where the discharge took place: between June 27 and July 10, at the level of the storm drain on Boulevard du Tricentenaire,” the mayor’s office said.
During the clean-up operations of the first incident, 19,000 litres of a mixture of water and hydrocarbons were recovered, including approximately 1,000 litres of hydrocarbons.
“If an employee of a company or a citizen has information about the source of this incident, we ask you to call the SPVM to help us identify the culprits,” stressed the mayor of the Rivière-des-Prairies-Pointe-aux-Trembles borough, Caroline Bourgeois.
During the searches by teams from the Montreal Environment Department and the Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles borough public works department — who established a search perimeter of more than 2 km² — camera inspections were carried out in the network to “identify clues and trace the origin of the spill.”
The city’s inspectors are not abandoning the investigation, however, they are “continuing observations during future rain events and will be able to intervene quickly if necessary,” notes the mayor’s office.
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