Article content continued

But the best-known part of the river cleanup plan is still to come. The city is planning to build an underground storage tank system in the downtown area to prevent raw sewage from spilling untreated into the Ottawa River. In older parts of the city, the storm and sanitary sewers are combined.

When there’s a particularly heavy rainfall, the combined sewers can’t handle the volume and untreated sewage spills into the river. This last stage of ORAP will see the overflow stored in giant underground tanks and released into the sewer system when volumes decrease.

Photo by Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS

The city has asked to split the hefty $195-million price tag evenly three ways with the provincial and federal governments — or $65 million each. The project is already a few years behind schedule, being originally slated for completion in 2013.

The city has set aside its third of the costs, and last year, the province pledged its part of the funding. The federal government has been slower in coming to the table, although former MP John Baird — who was the senior minister for the capital region for the past four years — was always a proponent of the plan, repeatedly referring to the river cleanup as a “moral issue.”

In fact, the federal government appeared set to announce the funding in February, but Baird’s sudden resignation from politics put the event on ice temporarily.

It is possible that the upcoming federal election helped move along the river cleanup announcement. In a statement, Galipeau — who is running for re-election in Ottawa-Orléans — said that “since 2006, the city of Ottawa has been able to count on strong and effective support from its local Conservative Members of Parliament. The announcement that I will make Tuesday will be further evidence.”