North Country Senator Patty Ritchie R-Heuvelton is calling on the International Join Commission (IJC), the group tasked with protecting the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes, to investigate the City of Montreal’s decision to dump eight billion liters of raw sewage into the St. Lawrence River.

Ritchie represents the western half of St. Lawrence County including Ogdensburg, Canton and Gouverneur, plus parts of Jefferson and Oswego counties.

In a letter sent Friday, Senator Ritchie urged the IJC to probe Montreal’s plans to allow sewage to begin flowing into the river beginning on October 18th and continuing for a week. According to city officials, the planned dumping is an unavoidable part of the reconstruction of a major expressway.

“The City of Montreal plans to dump the equivalent of 2,600 Olympic-sized swimming pools filled with wastewater from homes and businesses into North America’s most beautiful river,” writes Sen. Ritchie in her letter.

“While I realize that the dumping will occur in Canadian waters, downstream from any U.S. communities, I am very concerned by the precedent Montreal is setting for other communities along the St. Lawrence and the lakes.”

Sen. Ritchie’s letter also points out that up until the 1980s, the dumping of sewage was a common practice. Today, most municipalities work into their infrastructure upgrades ways to avoid polluting waterways.

A copy of Senator Ritchie’s letter is attached, and can also be found on her website, www.ritchie.nysenate.gov.