The Corporation of the City of Guelph and Varcon Construction Corporation have been fined a total of $270,000 for violations of Ontario Water Resources Act.

The convictions are for causing the discharge of raw sewage, into the Eramosa River, and occurred on two dates in February 2019.

The City of Guelph pled guilty to the violation, and was fined $85,000 plus a victim surcharge of $21,250. Varcon Construction, meanwhile, was found guilty and convicted of a violation of the act. At sentencing, the company was fined a total of $185,000 plus a victim fine surcharge of $46,250.

The City of Guelph was completing a large infrastructure project involving the replacement of watermains and sanitary sewers. It had awarded Varcon Construction Corporation for one phase of the work.

To replace certain sections of the sanitary sewer, bypass systems were required to divert sewage while new pipes were installed. Varcon retained a subcontractor to prepare a bypass pumping plan and supply the bypass pumping equipment. The bypass pumping plan submitted by Varcon was accepted by the city.

Contract specifications for bypass systems included several requirements, such as 24-hour monitoring of the bypass system, emergency spill response procedures, freezing protection and maintaining duplicate pumping systems at the site at all times.

In February 2019, a bypass system for sanitary sewage was installed in Eramosa River Park along the Eramosa River in Guelph. The bypass system began operating on February 15, 2019.

On the morning of February 17, 2019, the bypass system failed, resulting in a spill of sanitary sewage. The bypass system was not being monitored at the time of the spill because the retained security guard was stationed at an incorrect location.

At approximately 9:30 a.m. on February 17, 2019, the city was notified about a potential sewage spill in Eramosa River Park by an area resident. On-call staff for the city responded and observed a very large spill of sanitary sewage discharging to the Eramosa River. The city staff member was ultimately able to restart one of the pumps, which stopped the spill.

The bypass system in Eramosa River Park continued to operate, with one of the damaged pumps being replaced by two smaller pumps, and with 24-hour monitoring being done by trained pump watch staff.

On the morning of February 20, 2019, the sanitary sewage level in the maintenance hole began to rise, overwhelming the capacity of the bypass system as one of the smaller back-up pumps would not start. Sanitary sewage began spilling over land at approximately 7:00 a.m.

Varcon Construction crews were on site and used heavy equipment to excavate pits to contain the sanitary sewage. A city vacuum truck was also deployed to divert some of the sewage from the containment pits to the sanitary sewer. Despite these efforts, sanitary sewage spilled to the Eramosa River for a short period of time on February 20, 2019.

• Government
• H&S
• Human Resources
• General Industry