Rideau River water quality safe
Given the safe water quality of the Rideau River at Brantwood Park and elsewhere along the Old Ottawa East and South shoreline, paddleboarders and others may be tempted to have a refreshing swim in summers to come.
Photo: Laura Zak
Carleton professor Banu Örmeci completed water testing of the Rideau River last summer. She’s pictured here taking a water sample near Carleton University.
Photo: John Dance
Rideau River water quality safe
More swimming just a bridge away?
By John Dance
The National Capital Commission (NCC)’s remarkable creation of a Glebe swimming dock in Dow’s Lake was one of the local delights of the past summer, but now there is also the prospect of safe swimming in the Rideau River, just a bridge and short walk or bike ride away from the Glebe.
Thanks to the exceptional research done last summer by Carleton University professor Banu Örmeci and Richard Kibbee, a senior research associate in her lab, it’s clear that the E. coli levels at Springhurst, Brantwood, Windsor and Brewer parks in Old Ottawa East and South consistently meet the stringent provincial standard.
Ironically, Mooney’s Bay, the city’s only Rideau swimming beach, occasionally failed to meet the standard, whereas both the other Rideau parks consistently had safe levels of E. coli.
“We are frequently asked why the water quality at Mooney’s Bay is worse than that at other locations,” Örmeci noted on her website. “Mooney’s Bay is an artificial bay formed during the construction of the Rideau Canal. It has stagnant waters, and the water quality is affected by many factors, including the size of the crowds, birds and other wildlife, warmer temperatures and rain events. In summary, test results from Mooney’s Bay are specific to that location and do not indicate the broader condition of the Rideau River.”
Proud of water quality
The generally excellent water quality of the Rideau River is “something we should be proud of,” she says. She attributes the good results to the city’s success in greatly limiting waste-water discharge into the Rideau, and how neither the industrial nor the agricultural sector seriously pollutes the Rideau River, unlike in the past.
She further notes that the provincial safe swimming threshold is more than twice as stringent as it is in Europe. For example, before swimming was allowed in the Seine for the Paris Olympics, the E. coli parts per 100 millilitres could not exceed 500; in Ontario, the threshold is 200.
Last summer, the City of Ottawa reduced the amount of testing at Mooney’s Bay and its beaches along the Ottawa River, so the city’s information on changing water quality has become less useful and comprehensive.
Furthermore, the City does no testing of the Rideau River quality anywhere other than Mooney’s Bay. In the absence of the vital information provided by Örmeci and Kibbee, consideration of the decades-ago closure of the Brewer Pond, Brighton, Brantwood and Duchy’s Hole (Sandy Hill) beaches would be less likely.
The Carleton research was done by Örmeci after she had been approached by Old Ottawa East park and river advocate Rick Burrowes. She financed the work in part because she is the Jarislowsky Chair in Water and Global Health, a position funded by 100-year-old Canadian philanthropist Stephen A. Jarislowsky.
What now?
Now that she has finished her research, she asks, “What now?” and answers her own question with “It is very important that the City looks at it,” the “it” being satisfying the demand and need for cool swimming in an urban environment that is getting increasingly hot and uncomfortable in the summer.
As André Picard, the Globe and Mail’s health columnist, recently wrote: “We have to invest in better urban design… more trees, more parks and other green spaces as a way of mitigating the effects of soaring temperatures and cooling our lives, indoors and out.” One means of doing this is providing additional swimming facilities on what are now clean waterways.
Örmeci compliments the leadership of the NCC that promotes swimming at its River House on the Ottawa River and at the large swimming dock on Dow’s Lake.
“There needs to be more opportunities for all levels of swimming,” she notes, suggesting that the City of Ottawa should find excellent spots for safe swimming along the Rideau River.
A great thanks to Örmeci and Kibbee – but now the challenge is to convince politicians and bureaucrats that swimming should again be facilitated along the shores of the Rideau River.
The ball is now in the court of the NCC and the City of Ottawa to figure out where Ottawans living in the core can safely swim in the Rideau River.
John Dance is a resident of Old Ottawa East and a regular writer on city affairs for local newspapers. This article was first published in The Mainstreeter and is reprinted with consent of the author and editor.