Manhole Effluents

There are approximately 65,000 manholes in our territory, all of which house network components, such as cables and related equipment. Since manholes are not watertight, they accumulate run-off such as road water and sediment which can be contaminated. Our challenge is to manage those accumulations while respecting all applicable laws and regulations.

ADOPTING BEST PRACTICES

We strive to prevent the release of contaminated manhole effluents into storm or sanitary sewers and have a variety of measures in place in support of this goal:

• Adapting the standard pumping procedure used by our employees and service providers to best practice.
• Training employees on the appropriate pumping procedure.
• Using accredited, licensed suppliers to pump contaminated effluents from manholes, remove sludge and to dispose of it appropriately.
• Collecting data on the effluents pumped to address reoccurring issues.

PREVENTING CONTAMINATION

The following measures help prevent water contamination from our equipment or street runoff:

• We use non-metallic ladders and cable supports in manholes to prevent or reduce the release of metals into the water.
• We continue to install sealed manhole covers to limit the infiltration of water and sediment and to avoid the need for specialized pumping.
• In 2005, we installed 340 sealed covers on new manholes and on those where contamination from street run-off was an issue. Since 2002, a total of 2,273 new sealed covers have been installed.