Thousands of litres of raw sewage spill into Red River

Tens of thousands of litres of raw sewage leaked into the Red River on Sunday after fire hydrants opened overnight.

According to the City of Winnipeg, wastewater crews responded to an alarm at the Hart Avenue lift station just after 3:30 a.m. because a pair of fire hydrants were releasing water without city authorization. This caused 30,000 litres of raw sewage to spill into the Red River.

The city notes that the water was shut off, remaining wastewater was pumped out, and station operations were back to normal by 5:30 a.m. on Sunday.

• With files from CTV’s Taylor Brock.