City of Hamilton reporting wastewater bypass at Woodward Plant

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Published December 2, 2019 at 4:15 pm

The City of Hamilton is reporting the bypass of partially treated wastewater in Hamilton Harbour since Sunday (Dec. 1) at around noon.

The City of Hamilton is reporting the bypass of partially treated wastewater in Hamilton Harbour since Sunday (Dec. 1) at around noon.

Last month, Hamilton City Council approved an enhanced public notification protocol for bypasses at the Woodward Wastewater Treatment Plant.

As of Sunday at 12:03 p.m., the city says in a press release issued Monday, the amount of wastewater entering the sewer system exceeded the capacity at the Woodward Wastewater Treatment Plant, and the plant began bypassing partially treated wastewater into Hamilton Harbour.

This is the first bypass since the new enhanced public notification protocol has come into effect, the city says.

Bypasses occur in extreme wet weather when the amount of wastewater entering the sewer system exceeds the capacity of the treatment plant.

On Sunday, the rain combined with melting ice/snow exceeded the capacity of the treatment plant.

The City currently has nine large storage tanks in strategic locations to hold excess water during heavy rainfall or snowmelt.

These combined sewer overflow tanks hold more than 314,000 cubic metres of diluted wastewater.

During extreme wet weather events, the combined sewer overflow tanks will fill and store the excess water. If the tanks reach their full capacity, they will overflow into Hamilton Harbour.

In 2018, there were 17 reported bypasses at the Woodward Wastewater Treatment plant resulting in a bypass volume of 1868 ml of water overflowing into the harbour. This plant is currently in the midst of a massive $340 million upgrade.

Going forward, the City will publish a brief PSA within 24 hours of a bypass event at the Woodward Wastewater Treatment Plant.

In addition to the enhanced public notification protocol, the City also launched an educational video to help explain how combined sewer systems work. Those can be found here.

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