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The valves and gates were shut with the flip of several switches at Montreal’s main wastewater plant, diverting sewage from the city’s south-east interceptor pipe and into the St. Lawrence River as planned, starting shortly after midnight, Mayor Denis Coderre confirmed Wednesday.

Early reports Wednesday morning mentioned no signs of sewage visible in the St. Lawrence. Most of the outflow pipes bringing sewage into the water spew it 30 to 50 metres offshore, deep underwater.

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The city of Montreal will dump eight billion litres of untreated sewage into the river over the space of seven days in order to carry out infrastructure work on its sewage system and a snow chute near the Bonaventure Expressway. The decision has brought widespread condemnation, but the city and independent experts say it has no choice, and notes the practice is widespread throughout Canada.

Four night teams worked overnight to prepare work on the interceptor pipe, Coderre said. The gradual drying out of the broad sewage conduit was to start by this afternoon, with teams going on site to ensure the piping system, that runs for 30 kilometres between LaSalle and Pointe-aux-Trembles on the city’s southern shore, is waterproof. As the pipe will dry out starting in the western sector and moving east, repair work on the pipe, which varies in diameter from 1.5 to 5 metres and runs as far as 40 metres underground, will begin Wednesday afternoon.