Marten Falls First Nation, about 400 km northeast of Thunder Bay, Ontario, has issued a state of emergency after a series of wastewater infrastructure failures led to a sewage leak into a creek connected to the Albany River.
The December 13 leak occurred a “short distance” away from the intake of the First Nation’s water treatment plant, explained Marten Falls Chief Bruce Achneepineskum, who has told the community of about 300 residents on the fly-in reserve to rely on bottled water.
In a statement about the incident, Achneepineskum said that he wrote to Indigenous Services Canada in early 2024 to share study findings that revealed the need for wastewater infrastructure upgrades and a much larger, modernized facility.
But the letter yielded little in the way of action, he said, noting he was referred to departmental staff and left to linger in “a slow bureaucratic process” while the aging infrastructure continued to cause community concern.
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“[…] We find ourselves in a state of emergency where raw sewage is going directly into our water intake system for drinking water as a result of your government’s inability to meet basic infrastructure requirements that are the responsibility of your department,” Achneepineskum wrote in a new letter sent to the ministry on December 16.
Marten Falls’ leaders have posted updates about the situation to note that while technicians have been brought in to stop the leak, the community’s lift station is beyond repair. Until more long-term options become available, however, the community is arranging to acquire a replacement pump.
Indigenous Services Canada lifted a boil water advisory for the community in 2022. Achneepineskum objected to lifting the advisory because the reserve’s water intake system was “destroyed by ice breakdown” in the spring of 2022 and because of the unresolved issues with the wastewater system.
