O'Brien said the money could come in part from federal or provincial funding, or through city taxes, water rate hikes, or debt financing.

"This is the beginning of the solution to solve the problem of sewage pouring into the Ottawa River," said O'Brien, as he stood on the site of a construction project to upgrade sewage regulators near LeBreton Flats. "We discovered this (problem) on our watch and by gosh, we're going to solve this on our watch."

Councillor Peter Hume, who chairs city council's planning and environment committee, said the $140 million needed for the project will not affect this year's water rate, which is already set to rise by nine to 10 per cent. Instead, it could affect water rates beginning in 2011 and extend for the following five years until 2016.

The $140-million effort brings the cost of the Ottawa River Action Plan to a total of $251 million, including money that has already been budgeted. The federal government has already committed some $30 million to fixing Ottawa's outdated sewage system, and Infrastructure Minister John Baird was on hand Monday to state his commitment to stopping the flow of raw sewage into the river.

"We're excited to be a partner in this," he said. "It's a moral issue. It's just simply wrong and bad environmental stewardship."

Although Baird did not promise any more money, he hinted that money for the $140 million storage system might be available from the federal government's green fund.

The current, outdated system of pipes in the older part of the city allows stormwater to mix with sewage water, resulting in a combination of rainwater and raw sewage being washed into the river during any big rainstorm or melting period. The water goes into the river because there is not enough capacity at the city's sewage treatment plant to handle that much volume all at once.

The additional $140 million would allow the city to build either one large or several smaller underground storage tanks to hold the combined rain and sewage. The water would then gradually be released to the sewage treatment plant after the rainfall is over. The total storage capacity of the tanks would be about 45 million litres.

Although the storage system would eliminate sewage overflows to the Ottawa River in an average year, raw sewage might still wash into the river during exceptionally heavy storms.

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