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Coderre was in New York City Wednesday for a conference on city security.

The city is planning to allow the untreated waste water to flow into the St. Lawrence River for seven days starting Oct. 18 to allow the construction of a new snow chute. The lowering of the Bonaventure Expressway during its reconstruction means a snow chute in place will no longer be able to be used to dispose of snow.

To build a new chute, workers need access to a sewer that would must be closed to allow them to work. The sewage water that usually flows through it will have to be redirected into the river for seven days.

That would mean dirty water from LaSalle, Lachine, Verdun, and Notre-Dame-de-Grâce heading into the river, at a rate of 13,000 litres of water a second, or 8 billion litres over the week starting Oct. 18.

It’s difficult to conceive that no measures could be implemented to prevent untreated waste water from being discharged directly into the river for a week

City spokesperson Philippe Sabourin said Tuesday the city has done the most it can to avoid the negative impacts, but there was no way around it.

Projet Montréal questioned the lack of alternatives Tuesday, saying there must be measures that could be taken to prevent sewage water from being discharged into the river for a week.

“We’re not questioning the construction of a new snow chute in the southwest, but it’s difficult to conceive that no measures could be implemented to prevent untreated waste water from being discharged directly into the river for a week,” Projet Montréal councillor Sylvain Ouellet said.

“Would it not have been possible to pump the waste water through a temporary detour to avoid the river being contaminated?” councillor Sylvain Ouellet said.

Sabourin said the city took the best solution it could, choosing a period when fish don’t spawn, and adding that the amount of untreated water that will be dumped into it is very small relative to the amount of water flowing in the St. Lawrence River.

He warned that people who usually surf on the continuous wave found behind Habitat 67 or who kayak in that part of the river should avoid doing so during the work.