A drainage pipe leak under St. Boniface General Hospital in Winnipeg, Canada, has been discharging raw sewage into the soil since at least the spring, according to an article on the Winnipeg Sun website.

Hospital officials say that the leak is minor and intermittent but they don’t know how much of the effluent has leaked into the ground nor how badly the soil underneath has been contaminated, the article said.

“St. Boniface hospital discovered linear cracks in a sewage pipe, located in a crawlspace, in spring 2017 during a routine maintenance audit,” said the hospital’s communications coordinator Arpita Goala in an email statement. “The cracks are located in one of St. Boniface Hospital’s original drain pipes (circa original 1900s).”

The hospital says the leaks are patched up when they’re discovered. But it’s unclear how long the cracked pipe — which is located under the hospital’s A Block building facing the Red River — has been damaged, what impact the discharges may be having on the groundwater in the area, or how much could be seeping into the Red River.

Read the article.