City estimates 59 million litres of sewage leaked into Hamilton Harbour

The City of Hamilton estimates that approximately 59 million litres of sanitary sewage discharged into the Hamilton Harbour over 26 years from a pipe connected to 11 properties on Rutherford Ave.

The figure comes two months after city officials predicted that a Burlington St. leak discovered to be from 1996 had dumped 337 million litres of sewage into the harbour in the 26 years it went unnoticed.

Investigators made the prediction based on water meter usage data from the buildings.

On Monday, city officials confirmed the latest leak was found as part of a pilot program that inspects areas of the sewer system where the same cross connections responsible for the leak detected in November could be present.

READ MORE: City of Hamilton finds another sewage leak happening since 1996

“I am deeply concerned anytime we find a sewer leak going into Hamilton Harbour,” Mayor Andrea Horwath wrote in a statement Friday.

“Learning from the discovery of November’s leak, we are proactively looking for these misconnections in our aging sewer system, and we will continue this work going forward.”

The city said all sewage is now flowing into the Myrtle Ave. combined sewer and all appropriate blocking of the storm sewer has been completed.

Hamilton officials say they shared the estimated volume of discharge with the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks Spills Action Centre on Friday morning.

READ MORE: City estimates 337 million litres of sewage leaked into Hamilton Harbour