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A junction chamber in the sewers below the Montreal suburb of Côte Saint-Luc. Most of Montreal’s sewers run under streets, giving Emond the novelty of exploring mysterious dark caverns that are only a few metres below well-trafficked areas of Montreal. “There’s this extensive network and you realize so little of it has been explored by people in the past 50 years,” he said.

A Victorian-era collector sewer under the neighbourhood of Pointe-Saint-Charles, detailing a section where a newer concrete section was patched into an original brick sewer. In Europe, many brick sewers from the era are notable for the care and artistry with which they were built. A municipal sewer system was still a point of pride in the 19th century, to the point where Paris still maintains a section of its sewers as a permanent tourist attraction. But it was all business in the early decades of Canada. Emond says it’s clear that whoever bricked up Montreal’s first sewers, they were obviously in a hurry.



A modern section of the Côte Saint-Luc sewers, under an industrial area near the Loyola Campus of Concordia University. Emond would avoid the sewers during periods of heavy water flow, such as during a thunderstorm. Still, fast-flowing water constantly threatened to sweep him off his feet. On this section, Emond and two explorer partners used climbing equipment to navigate particularly tricky sections.



While this resembles a cave, this is actually a section of sewer under Côte-Saint-Paul. Emond says the stalactites, stalagmites and other deposits are formed by lime leaking out of the concrete structure — and accumulating after years of neglect. “Nature has completely taken over to the point where you’re easily tricked into believing you’re not inside a man-made structure anymore,” he writes on his website. In other cities, sewer maintenance workers have struggled with deposits of cooking fat that similarly accumulate along the sides of sewers. In London, for instance, workers are routinely forced to break up “fatbergs”of congealed grease weighing several tonnes.