Domestic, community, and municipal wastewater

Domestic wastewater is water from toilets, as well as greywater (water from kitchens, baths, washing machines, and certain household appliances other than a toilet). In the case of community or municipal sewage systems, industrial waste may be included. It is vital that this water be properly managed in order to protect public health, preserve our waterways, and provide a clean environment for future generations.

This section contains information concerning domestic wastewater management for community, municipal, and individual projects generating more than 3,240 liters of domestic wastewater every day.

• Laws and regulations
• Project authorizations
• Ministerial positions
• Information sheets
• Guidance manuals
• Municipal depollution attestations
• Municipal wastewater treatment plant monitoring system (SOMAEU) User guides
• Operation and monitoring of municipal wastewater treatment works
• New technologies
• Useful publications and references

Laws and regulations

• Environment Quality Act (EQA)
• Regulation respecting the regulatory scheme applying to activities on the basis of their environmental impact (REAFIE) (French)
• Regulation for municipal wastewater treatment works
• Regulation respecting private waterworks and sewer services (French)

Project authorizations

• Authorization request form (French)
• Compliance Report (French)
• General requirements for domestic wastewater treatment projects (French, PDF, 264 KB)
• Environmental monitoring of domestic wastewater treatment facilities (French, PDF, 252 KB)

Ministerial positions

• Performance standards of the Canada-wide Strategy for the Management of Municipal Wastewater Effluent
• Enforcement of Canada-wide standards regarding municipal sewer system overflow
• Disinfecting treated wastewater (French)
• Reduction of phosphorus in domestic wastewater discharge (French)

Information sheets

• Contents of the action plan to comply with section 29 of the Regulation respecting municipal wastewater treatment works (French, PDF, 229 KB)
• Authorization for standard or demonstration process chains (French, PDF, 29 KB)
• Specific rules for the authorization of tertiary-level sewage treatment systems using ultraviolet (UV) disinfection for projects in excess of 3240 l/day (French, PDF, 32 KB)
• Acceptability assessment approach for non-domestic wastewater discharge into a municipal sewer system (French, PDF, 782 KB)
• Authorization to extend municipal sewers in case of non-compliance with environmental requirements or water treatment plant nominal capacity overage (French, PDF, 29 KB)
• Acute municipal effluent toxicity—relationship between the concentration of ammoniacal nitrogen in municipal effluent and toxicity for trout (French, PDF, 270 KB) 
• Remediation plan when an acute toxicity trial result in municipal water treatment plant effluent is positive (French, PDF, 161 KB)

Guidance manuals

• Directive 004 - Sewer Systems
• Conventional Domestic Wastewater Treatment Technologies: Study Guide (French)
• Guide to setting discharge standards for wastewater treatment works (French, PDF, 835 KB)
• Guide to Ministère’s environmental requirements regarding temporary work camps (French, PDF, 269 KB)
  • Appendix 1 - Notice to the Minister (French, Word, 173 KB)
  • Appendix 2 - Attestation - Wastewater (French, Word, 173 KB)
  • Appendix 3 - Attestation - Drinking water (French, Word, 173 KB)
  • Appendix 4 - Note - Untreated groundwater withdrawal (French, Word, 169 KB)
• Other guides of interest
• Application limits of the “Remontée” program (French, PDF, 30 KB)

Municipal depollution attestations

• Issuance of municipal wastewater treatment attestations - French

Municipal wastewater treatment plant monitoring system (SOMAEU)

Registration or update sheets:

• of the treatment plant (French, Word, 1,1 MB)
• of the overflow facility (French, Word, 1,1 MB)

User guides

• Module 0: Browser help (French, PDF, 1.5 MB)
  • Module 0.1: Abbreviations and codes (French, PDF, 765 KB)
• Module 1: SOMAEU Management
  • Module 1.1: Registration (French, PDF, 1,3 MB)
  • Module 1.2: Operating sectors (French, PDF, 1.7 MB)
  • Module 1.3: Operators (French, PDF, 445 KB)
• Module 2: Obligations
  • Module 2.1: Non-compliance detection (French, PDF, 779 KB)
  • Module 2.2: Consult the periodic data transmission program (French, PDF, 1.4 MB)
  • Module 2.3: Standards and requirements (French, PDF, 1.6 MB)
    
• Module 3: Data transmission
  • Module 3.1: Notice to the Minister (French, PDF, 1.6 MB)
    
  • Module 3.2: Monthly Reports (French, PDF, 4.2 MB)
  • Module 3.3: Annual Reports (French, PDF, 2.4 MB)
• Module 4: Operational reports (French, PDF, 6.8 MB)

Technical guides

• XML File Transmission (French, PDF, 568 KB)

Information sheets

1. Calculations within the SOMAEU system for monitoring municipal wastewater treatment works (French, PDF, 212 KB)
2. Reasons for Notices to the Minister (French, PDF, 264 KB) 
3. 2017 Annual Report (French, PDF, 736 KB) 
4. Overflow systems (French, PDF, 721 KB)
5. Non-compliance incident detection (French, PDF, 190 KB)

Operation and monitoring of municipal wastewater treatment works

• Operation and monitoring of municipal wastewater treatment works (OMAEU) (French, PDF, 1.26 MB)
• Performance evaluation reports of municipal wastewater treatment works (OMAE) by the Ministère des Affaires municipales et de l’Occupation du territoire (MAMOT)

• Performance report on municipal wastewater treatment works for 2021 (French, PDF, 900 KB)
• Performance report on municipal wastewater treatment works for 2020 (French, PDF, 1,6 MB)
• Performance report on municipal wastewater treatment works for 2019 (French, PDF, 1,5 MB)
• Performance report on municipal wastewater treatment works for 2018 (French, PDF, 1.8 MB)
• Performance report on municipal wastewater treatment works for 2017 (French, PDF, 980 KB)

Information sheets

• Selection criteria and main components for electronic overflow recorders - technical information sheet (French, PDF 34 KB) 
• Procedures for work on a wastewater treatment plant with wastewater discharge (French, PDF, 274 KB)
• Raising the level of the last basin’s outlet line inverts for aerated pond–type water purification plants (French, PDF, 52 KB)
• Confined space hazards (French, PDF, 28 KB)
• Accuracy checking a pH meter (French, PDF, 390 KB)
• Accuracy checking a temperature gauge (French, PDF, 195 KB)

Others documents 

• Models for discharge into Québec municipal sewer networks (French)

New technologies

• Evaluation procedure for new domestic wastewater treatment technologies
• Development support for new domestic wastewater treatment technologies (French)

Validation sheets

• Technology fact sheets on domestic wastewater treatment technologies (French) (Now hosted on the Bureau de normalisation du Québec website)

Recommendation sheets

Recommendation data sheet for the treatment of domestic wastewater (French)

Information sheets

• Reclassification of a new technology in the Conventional Domestic Wastewater Treatment Technologies (French, PDF, 238 KB)

Useful publications and references

• Water Atlas – Municipal (French)
• Bulletin Eaux³ municipales (French)
• Québec soil surveys
• Correlation between rainfall and frequency of municipal sewer network overflow structure spillover (INRS-Eau, Terre et Environnement report) 
  • Statistical analysis (French, PDF, 736 KB)