"The City of Montreal says the controversial process of dumping eight billion litres of raw sewage into the St. Lawrence River went off without a hitch as it got under way on Wednesday.

Mayor Denis Coderre told reporters gathered along a shoreline in southwestern Montreal that everything was proceeding as planned and the infrastructure repair work that necessitated the discharge remains on schedule.

Certain sewers began diverting untreated sewage away from an aging interceptor and directly into the river just after midnight on Wednesday morning, work that will continue for one week.

The release of untreated waste water is necessary in order to complete repairs on an aging interceptor tunnel that feeds sewage to a treatment facility as well as to relocate a snow chute."

Sidhartha Banerjee reports for the Canadian Press November 11, 2015. [2]