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Small quake rattles residents near Ont.-Que. boundary
MONTREAL — A minor earthquake, with an estimated 4.3 magnitude, was apparently strong enough to bring down the federal website intended to keep Canadians informed about quakes.
Again.
A temblor between Ottawa and Montreal caused the ground to shake for about 10 seconds as it struck a few kilometres east of Hawkesbury, Ont., Wednesday at around 1:36 p.m.
The quake was felt as far as 100 kilometres away -- in places like Ottawa, Cornwall, Ont. and the western suburbs of Montreal.
There were no immediate reports of damage.
The one notable casualty was the website for Earthquakes Canada, the federal monitoring body.
The last time there was a temblor in the region, last June, the federal site was entirely frozen.
This time it was only partially paralyzed.
Many visitors seeking information after the quake hit were greeted by blank screens. By 2 p.m., the site was occasionally working, but only intermittently. It appeared to be running smoothly again later in the afternoon.
The bugs brought back memories of last year's 5.0 quake, where staffers scrambled for more than two hours to find a temporary solution and it took four hours before the whole site was back in full working order.
Documents obtained by The Canadian Press, under Access to Information, revealed that the federal site was overrun by demand last year.
At the time, an official with Natural Resources Canada admitted the crash raised questions about how well prepared the agency is to communicate with Canadians online in the event of a sudden natural disaster -- such as an earthquake or tsunami.
The department explained Wednesday that it has been making improvements to the website, in phase
Natural Resources Canada estimates that 100-150 earthquakes are recorded annually in the region, known as the Western Quebec Seismic Zone.
"Most of them are too small to be felt," Stephen Halchuk, a department seismologist, said Wednesday.
"Today's event is a bit larger."
He said quakes bigger than 4.0 magnitude only rumble in the zone every two or three years.
"Today's earthquake was widely felt in the region between Ottawa and Montreal, but certainly not large enough to do any significant damage," Halchuk said.
As for the website, Halchuk doesn't manage it.
But he said an increased volume of visitors at the time of the quake might have affected its performance.
"We had taken steps to improve our (website's) capacity, so I'm not sure about the specific problems that you may have experienced today," he said.
As it did last year, the U.S. Geological Survey's website continued running smoothly Wednesday and provided information about the quake.
The U.S. agency pegged the magnitude at 3.7.
Water leak at Pickering nuclear plant no threat: officials
There are assurances that a leak which occurred at the Pickering Nuclear Plant is not going to be a threat to people's health or the environment.
PICKERING — Officials say a water leak at Pickering's nuclear power plant east of Toronto does not pose any significant threats to public health.
The leak is attracting attention in the wake of the nuclear crisis in Japan following last week's earthquake and ensuing tsunami.
But both the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and Ontario Power Generation say the radiological risk to people's health and the environment is negligible.
The commission said 73,000 litres of demineralized water was released from the Pickering A generating station around 11:30 p.m. Monday night.
The leak was caused by pump seal failure, the commission said.
Ontario Power Generation says the release was immediately stopped upon discovery and the pump seal is being replaced.
It said the filtered water contained trace amounts of tritium, far below any regulatory limits.
"This is a very low level event. There is no impact to quality of drinking water," Ontario Power Generation said in a statement.
The safety commission and Environment Canada are monitoring the situation.
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