Three men's washrooms in Lakehead University's Ryan Building were mistakenly connected to the storm sewer system during the building's construction in 1972, directing sewage to storm drains.

THUNDER BAY – Raw sewage from a Lakehead University building has flowed into a line intended for storm water since the 1970s, a result of misconnected sewer lines.

Hugh Briggs, director of the university’s physical plant, said contractors involved in the new Centre for Advanced Studies in Engineering and Sciences building tipped off university administration last week after finding sewage material in a storm drain.

The subsequent investigation determined three men’s washrooms in the Ryan Building were connected to the storm sewer, rather than the sanitary sewer.

“The building was constructed in 1972 and it has been that way ever since then,” Briggs said.

The university has blocked the line to prevent any further flow of the sewage into the storm drain and installed a transfer pump to move the material to the sanitary system, Briggs added.

Briggs said connections to the sanitary sewer are directed to the city’s water treatment plant while storm water is directed to the McIntyre River.

Lisa Brygdiyr, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, said the ministry was notified late last week.

“We are not aware that any sewage has reached the McIntyre River,” Brygdiyr said. “Monitoring of the effluent has been ongoing and no issues were previously identified.”

Brygdiyr said the university has retained an environmental consultant to investigate the matter.

“The MOECC is monitoring the situation closely, and is in contact with LU staff and the university’s consultant to discuss the matter and how they plan to remedy the situation,” Brygdiyr said.

“To date, the ministry has no concerns with the proposed plan forward to correct the connections of the sewer line.”

Briggs said a permanent fix will likely take a couple of weeks.

It remains unclear how the issue escaped detection decades ago.

“The building would have been constructed to the code of the day and would have been inspected by building permit at that time,” Briggs said.