If the City of Ottawa has to pay Ontario a large fine for a 2006 sewage spill into the Ottawa River, it could hamper the city's ability to prevent future spills, Ottawa councillors say.

"I hope they're not so stupid as to say you have to pay $10 million so instead of putting $10 million into fixing the service we have to pay the province," Coun. Marianne Wilkinson said Friday, responding to two Ministry of the Environment charges laid against the city the day before.

The charges, laid under the Water Resources Act, are for allowing a spill between Aug. 4 and Aug. 15, 2006, that could impair the quality of the water and for not reporting it immediately. The fines for a conviction of each offence are $25,000 to $6 million for each day of the offence.

The spill, which senior city staff, councillors and the public learned about in May, was caused by a sewage valve that got stuck after a storm. It released 1.2 billion litres of raw sewage into the river and was blamed for fouling a beach downstream. A city employee was subsequently fired for not reporting the spill immediately and claiming that he had reported it.

Wilkinson, councillor for Kanata North, said she had expected the charges.

"I don't think the province had any choice. It happened, we all know it happened … the province can't ignore it."

Spill blamed on infrastructure woes

She said the second charge stemmed from human error. But she blamed the spill itself mainly on the city's aging infrastructure, which she said the province and federal government should be helping to upgrade.

Eli El-Chantiry, councillor for West Carleton-March, agreed.

"The problem is a lot bigger than the city can handle," he said, adding that upper levels of government and municipalities on both the Ontario and Quebec sides of the Ottawa River should be working together.

El-Chantiry was optimistic that the fines against the city will be modest, as the city changed its protocols to prevent future spills once it learned about the 2006 incident.

Sewage valves are now manually checked after rainstorms and sewage spills are reported to public health and city council. The city is also upgrading its sewer system to monitor and control the sewage gates via computer.

Wilkinson added that the higher fines are intended to penalize those responsible for discharging toxic substances, not sewage spills caused by human error.