For most living on the island of Montréal the City’s sewer system is a constant presence.

Since June 2007, when a gaping hole dramatically opened up in the middle of Sherbrooke Street, pedestrians and drivers alike have had to contend with a seemingly never-ending and disorganized array of traffic detours and sidewalk closures. The current work on the sewers and drains is part of a project to fix the 130-year-old ailing underground network of pipes and drains that constitute an important component of Montréal’s sanitation complex. Aside from the Sherbrooke Street collapse, repairs to the City’s underground arise from the system’s leaky infrastructure; the old pipes, often constructed from brick, have deteriorated and gas produced by the decaying waste is seeping into the soil. In addition, the system, which dumped untreated industrial and municipal effluent directly into the St. Lawrence River until 1978, continues to leak small amounts of its toxic holdings into the River (Québec, Développement durable, Environnement et Parcs. www.mddep.gouv.qc.ca/eau/flrivlac/fleuve_en.htm). The current project is focused on eliminating the old structure’s threat to public health and the environment; in the 1870s, the same system was conceived of to address public hygiene and the threat of disease.

In the middle of the 19th century, industrial cities began the project of sanitizing civic spaces. Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s re-building of Paris in the 1860s is a good example. The Sanitation movement was widespread in the middle of the 19th century, and cities such as Paris and London began building great brick canals below the street to remove industrial refuse. The goal was to create a safer, more sanitary public realm. In Montréal, the combination of human and industrial effluent, which often included food scraps and meat from city markets, seeped into the underground streams carrying with it infection and disease (Canadian Illustrated News. “City Water Under a Microscope.” September 10, 1870. McCord Museum). Between 1860 and 1880, Montreal developed a rudimentary infrastructure to collect the filthy water, which was then dumped into the St. Lawrence. The City, however, lagged behind other metropolises and it wasn’t until the 1880s, when sanitary engineers began tackling the issue of waste management, that a comprehensive system emerged (Robert Gagnon. Questions d’égouts : Santé publique, infrastructures et urbanisation à Montréal au XIXe siècle. 2006).

The early sewers (1860-1880) made use of the island’s existing water flows. One sewer was laid in the bed of Rivière Saint- Pierre. This sewer, the Williams Collector, located beneath Place d’Youville, would later become a central component of Montreal’s waste management system. According to the Montréal Museum of Archeology and History’s website, the Youville Pumping Station was built in 1915 to lift the sewer’s contents over 6 meters “so that it would then flow by gravity into another collector, one kilometer away, on Craig (now Saint-Antoine) Street.” The development of Old Montréal’s underground played a varied and complex role in the City’s social, political and economic history. Alluding to this, Robert Gagnon has importantly pointed out that late 19th century developments to this subterranean structure marked Montréal’s shift from a primarily pedestrian city to a city organized by networks, a city focused on accommodating the movement of large goods to and from the port. In this sense, the large scale co-ordination of the City’s underground coincided with the reshaping of Montréal into a modern metropolis arranged around a series of linked systems such as sanitation, Photo : Interior view of the 125 year old Craig (now Saint-Antoine) Street sewer. Courtesy of Andrew Emond, Under Montreal, 2010 hydro and transportation.

The role of Montréal’s sewers has indeed been to dispose of the unsightly. Curiously, the system has begun to make an appearance on the surface. Located on the northwest corner of Square des Frères-Charon is a short round tower which serves to hide the pumping station constructed to buttress the flow of the city’s primary east/west and north/south sewer lines, which surge 10 stories below. Recently, in recognition of the significance of sewers for the City, the Montréal Museum of Archeology and History has refurbished and opened the Youville Pumping Station to the public. Future expansion plans for the Museum will see the Williams sewer become an underground passage to a new exhibition hall in the Canada Customs House. However, for those who can’t wait for the official unveiling, spectacular images of Old Montréal’s murky underside can be seen at Andrew Emond’s blog Under Montréal (www.undermontreal.com).

Commentaires (0)