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A federal order preventing Montreal from dumping 8 billion litres of raw sewage into the St. Lawrence River is “inappropriate and abusive,” Mayor Denis Coderre said Friday in a letter to federal Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq.

He was responding to the federal government’s order to hold off on the planned sewage discharge, which had been scheduled to start Sunday and last one week.

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But while Coderre was hoping for a resolution before Oct. 23, Aglukkaq signed an order Friday prohibiting Montreal from doing anything until Nov. 3. The minister wrote in the order she wanted to “prevent the planned deposit of untreated wastewater effluent” to permit a scientific review.

On Wednesday, federal Infrastructure Minister Denis Lebel invoked Article 37 of the Fisheries Act, which protects aquatic life, to tell the city not to dump the sewage pending an independent scientific study on how the discharge would affect wildlife and drinking water.