5 million litres of raw sewage leak into Red River in Winnipeg

Five million litres of raw sewage leaked into Winnipeg's Red River between Jan.10-19,according to the city.

And the city didn't know about it until a homeowner in the areacalled to complain about the stench.

• 185M litres of raw sewage dumped into Winnipeg rivers since 2004

Craig Tulloch noticed a steaming patch of brown, murky water in the river behind his house on Saturday.

By Tuesday "it was just an overpowering stench, and I could see there was still open water, and that's when I decided I better call 311," he said.

City crews found lumber had become lodged in a diversion pipe near St. John's Park,at Main Streetand Mountain Avenue,where sewage is directed to the treatment plant.

The lumber was removed around 1:35 p.m. on Jan. 19, restoring full flow and stopping the leak, the city reported on its website.

Mary Reichert, wholives across the river from the spill, saidit's unsettling to know the sewage was spilling practically into her backyard.

"It's pretty frightening, although it won't stay in my backyard, but it'll go to somebody else's backyard down river," she said.

The city said under normaldry weather conditions, the diversion chamber directs flow to the treatment facility. In wet weather conditions it is normal for overflow to be directed into the river.

In this case, the blockage caused some of the flow to be directed into the river instead of toward the treatment facility.

The city hasoverflow alarms that are triggeredwhen there is a blockage within the diversion, but not at the opening, as it was in this case.

Tulloch saidmore should be done to prevent spills like this.

"I would hope that there are systems put in place to alert them and not be relying on citizens to call 311," he said.

The city said it's working to findways to detect overflow problems sooner. It hasalso reported the incident toManitoba Conservation.