Wastewater treatment engineers in Quebec City have begun flushing millions of litres of raw sewage into the Saint Lawrence River to allow for maintenance work on the city's sewage treatment facilities.
It is similar to the process carried out in Montreal last fall but on a much smaller scale.
Montreal released 4.9 billion litres of wastewater into the river last October.
Quebec City will release about 135 million litres in stages over the next several weeks, starting with about 50 million litres today.
Quebec City Mayor Regis Labaume, like Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre last year, says the release of the sewage is necessary to prevent potentially bigger problems in the future.