Work continues to clean second motor oil spill in river near Montreal

By The Canadian Press on July 26, 2024.

MONTREAL – Work is continuing today to clean up the second oil spill in two weeks in the St. Lawrence River off eastern Montreal.

The Quebec Environment Department has confirmed that the two spills in the Pointe-aux-Trembles district involved motor oil that flowed into the river from a city storm sewer.

Officials are working with the City of Montreal to figure out how the oil ended up in the sewers.

The latest spill was discovered near a marina on Thursday, after heavy rainfall the night before.

Booms were deployed to contain the spill and a vacuum truck was on site Thursday to recover the contaminated water.

A total of 19,000 litres of water mixed with about 1,000 litres of oil were pumped from the river after an earlier spill was discovered on July 11, but officials couldn’t find the source at the time.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 26, 2024.

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