2021-Oct-19
Sewage Overflow Into Georgian Bay at Collingwood
For more than 14 hours, some wastewater overflowed at the Collingwood wastewater treatment facility and was discharged into Georgian Bay without going through the treatment process. The town announced a “full treatment bypass” occurred on Sept. 23, lasting 14.5 hours. There was also a “partial bypass” for 21.5 hours during rainstorms the next week.
The incidence of untreated wastewater getting into Georgian Bay is going to get worse year on year with climate change impacts. This recent occurrence reinforces the need for coastal Great Lakes municipalities to have the funding and expertise made available to them by the provincial government to improve their infrastructure in order to cope with increasingly violent storm surges and prevent overflows.
Read about the incident here.