Guest: Matthew Van Dongen, The Hamilton Spectator

The City of Hamilton has found that nearly 400 million litres of sanitary sewage from 61 homes has leaked into Hamilton Harbour, an industrial area, over a 26 year period. It is a messy situation, but one that was only found after attention was called underground in 2019 when a Hamilton Spectator investigation revealed that 24-billion-litres of sewage had leaked into Chedoke Creek, a recreational area frequented by area residents, over four a year period. The city knew about that problem, but kept the find private and did nothing to stop it. Matthew Van Dongen, a transit and environment reporter at The Spectator, joins “This Matters” to share details about efforts to inspect, clean up and have more transparency at Hamilton’s City Hall.

This episode was produced by Brian Bradley, Crawford Blair and JP Fozo.

Audio sources: CHCH News