Cross posted at Ecojustice.

Today Ecojustice released Flushing Out the Truth, a report highlighting the tens of billions of litres of untreated sewage that are knowingly allowed to flow into the Great Lakes each year because of the province's inadequate sewage system.

Much of the untreated waste made its way into water bodies through sewage bypasses -- diversions which carry excess sewage to lakes or rivers when treatment plants are over capacity or have technical problems.

Added to that are combined sewage overflows, which occur in older systems where stormwater and sewage from sinks, toilets and drains gush along the same pipe. Bad weather can cause the pipes to overflow into a lake or river.

It’s the wastewater equivalent of fixing gridlock by letting cars drive on sidewalks.

Rather than allowing sewage to overflow and be diverted before proper treatment, Ecojustice has been calling on government’s to ensure systems can handle the capacity they need to – by mitigating combined sewage systems and investing in green infrastructure that reduces the amount of storm water entering the system in the first place.

The report also singled out Ontario's worst offenders. Niagara Falls topped the list with sewage releases totaling almost 7 billion litres in 2007 alone. Other cities with more than a billion litres of sewage released during 2006-7 include: Hamilton (5 billion); Windsor (4.3 billion); Welland (3.9); Toronto (2.7 billion); Sudbury/Greater Sudbury (2.6 billion); London (1.8 billion); and Leamington (1 billion).

Read the report here.