City working to clear the air at Parliament station

The city has its fingers crossed that repairs to a sewer line will soon improve the smell at Parliament station, but is making no promises the problem won't linger.

City workers discovered a puncture in the line causing a sewage leak during a routine inspection Aug. 9, but the city only told the public in November and waited until last week to reveal that it had been aware of the incident all along.

Officials initially attributed the stench — first noted by riders in September when the Confederation Line opened — to moisture in the station's tunnel and the type of sealant used to repair cracks.

Michael Morgan, the city's director of rail construction, said it's difficult to nail down the precise source of the smell because the sealant and moisture could still be at play.

"There's been a number of contributing factors," he said Tuesday. "I'm not 100 per cent that this issue is going to fix the problem so that's why we're saying it's kind of a working theory."

He also denied that the city and Rideau Transit Group (RTG), the consortium behind the project, were slow to mention the sewage issue in the first place.

"I was very up front when I was asked about it at [commitee]," Morgan said.

He added that RTG worked "pretty quickly" to get started on repairs.

Repairs long overdue

For River Coun. Brockington, the whole incident reeks of a lack of transparency.

"When some things that seem to be minor in the grand scheme of things are held back or not provided, that's very frustrating," he said.

The repairs — which will come out of RTG's pocket — were meant to be finished in November, but Morgan said the job is taking longer than expected.

The fix involves capping the pipe and pumping out its contents. The bolts that originally damaged the pipe will then be removed.

City workers have been working overnight to keep disruption to a minimum.

"By the end of the week, [the pipe] is expected to be fully lined," Morgan said.