Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) has charged the City of Hamilton with two counts of discharging sanitary sewage in water under the Ontario Water Resources Act.
In November 2022, Hamilton Water discovered that, in 1996, someone drilled a hole into a sewage pipe in the area of Burlington Street and Wentworth Street North.
The hold allowed sewage from 50 homes to flow directly into a storm sewer and ultimately, after travelling a few meters, into Hamilton Harbour.
As Joey Coleman wrote at the time, Shit Happens. Someone made a stupid mistake in 1996, and due to the unique circumstances of the situation, it took over 25 years to discover.
Immediately after the 2022 discovery, Hamilton Water inspected all other underground sites of sewer and storm sewer cross-connections. In early Jan 2023, they found sewage pipe following directly into a stormwater sewer in the area of Rutherford Avenue and Myrtle Avenue.
Since then, the City has implemented more sewer inspections, monitored stormwaters for dry weather flows that can indicate sewage cross connections, and taken other measures.
A key difference in these charges, compared to the Chedoke Creek cover-up, is that the City is not being charged for failure to report.