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OTTAWA — Beaches in Ottawa open this Saturday, and along with the season comes a plan from the city’s chief of infrastructure that would drastically cut the amount of E.coli bacteria entering the Ottawa River and give swimmers more carefree days of swimming and sand each summer.
The plan, to be discussed by city council’s planning and environment committee next Tuesday, involves $203 million worth of upgrades to the city’s sewer system over the next 14 years. It’s being submitted by Nancy Schepers, deputy city manager for infrastructure services and community sustainability.
Ultimately, the goal is to have no more than two days of beach closings caused by sewer overflows per summer. That won’t happen this year, but starting in 2010 swimmers should see an improvement in the number of days city beaches at Britannia, Westboro, and Petrie Island stay open, said Dixon Weir, the city’s general manager of environmental services.
“I think the improvements are more likely to occur next year,” Weir said. “Because of the complexity of the river, it’s very, very difficult to predict … But certainly, the (bacterial) loading of the river and the beach will go down significantly, and that should result in more beach openings.”
Last year, Britannia beach was closed for one day, Westboro beach for 21 days, and Petrie Island for 19 days, due to E.coli contamination. E.coli and associated bacteria can cause gastro-intestinal illness if swallowed, as well as eye and ear infections in swimmers.
If all goes according to the plan — which has yet to be approved by council — the E.coli flushed into the river will be reduced by 38 per cent next summer. And if the City of Gatineau does its part in the cleanup, the bacteria should be down by 59 per cent by 2035.
According Schepers’ report, 85 per cent of the E.coli in the Ottawa River (above natural levels) comes from three sources:
n Sewage overflows from the city of Ottawa (51.8 per cent)
n Sewage overflows from the city of Gatineau (15.9 per cent)
n Effluent from the Gatineau sewage-treatment plant (17.9 per cent)
Sewage overflows occur on the Ottawa side because in the older parts of Ottawa and Gatineau the same pipes carry household sewage and rainwater. When there is little or no rain, a large interceptor pipe collects the fluid from these mixed-use pipes and takes it to the sewage plant for processing. However, if more than 2.5 millimetres of rain falls, some of the rainwater-and-sewage mixture is discharged directly into the Ottawa River, to prevent the system from being overwhelmed.
Last year, between April and November, 895 million litres of combined sewage, rainwater and the last of the spring snowmelt flowed untreated from pipes into the river.
To fix the overflow problem, the plan proposes three main elements, some of which are already under way:
n Modernize and computerize the system of gates that lead to the interceptor pipe, so that more effluent is directed toward the sewage plant instead of into the river.
n Build underground storage tanks that can hold the sewage-and-rainwater mixture until a storm is over, and then send it to the sewage treatment plant.
n Build separate rainwater and household sewage pipes in certain parts of the city.
Besides these initiatives, the plan forseees spending $72 million over the next 14 years to treat and manage stormwater in the creeks that flow into the Ottawa River directly upstream of Westboro beach and Petrie Island. Though stormwater may appear innocuous, it washes pollutants into the river, including dog and cat feces that may carry harmful bacteria.
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