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The east end’s riverfront getaway hasn’t been the oasis beach lovers had been promised. Closed more often than not, Ottawa’s newest beach is proving to have the worst record in the city this year. As of Monday Aug. 14, the beach at Petrie Island has been closed more than 60 per cent of the summer, and hasn’t been open to swimmers since the beginning of the month. It was also under a “No Swim Advisory” during both long weekends due to high levels of E. coli.
According to Meredith Brown, the executive director of the Ottawa Riverkeeper citizen’s group, the location of the beach (downstream from two major urban centers) and heavy rainfall might be to blame.
She said the biggest impact on the water quality comes from storm water. When it rains, the water runs across parking lots, roads, farm fields and lawns, then through the storm sewer system that dumps the untreated water into the river.
As the water courses through neighbourhoods it picks up manure, fertilizers, and even sewage sludge spread on fields.
“It’s a major problem,” Brown said, adding smaller municipalities have smaller problems but larger urban areas with more people, pavement and impervious surfaces have a bigger problem.
Both Ottawa and Gatineau see beach closures each year, but the only time the smaller municipalities upstream of the Ottawa area have beach closures is if there is a one-time event. According to the Riverkeeper’s report, beaches in Renfrew County never closed between 2001 and 2004. Public beaches in Arnprior were closed for six days in 2003 as a precautionary measure due to a large sewage spill in the Madawaska River.
“If you look at the beaches in Ottawa, Petrie Island has had the most problems, this year anyway,” Brown said. “It’s downstream of Ottawa and Gatineau, our two major cities on the river that have, I’d say, one of the largest impacts on the water quality of the river.”
Although fingers often point to the fact that Petrie Island is downstream from two wastewater treatment plants, the Riverkeeper suggests beach closures and water quality correlate to rainfall.
Brown said it’s typically after a large rainfall that water samples show high levels of E. coli. Fecal contamination can be swept into the river by storm water.
Brown explained the downtown core of the city has combined sewers that carry both storm water and household waste.
“Ideally, those combined sewers go to the sewage treatment plant,” Brown said. “But when you get a lot of rainfall the treatment plant can’t accommodate for the large volume, so they do what’s called a bypass, and it doesn’t go to sewage treatment plant, it goes straight out into the river.”
Brown suggests residents check beach closures before they head out to go swimming.
“I, personally, would swim upstream of the city,” Brown said. “Petrie Island is probably the one beach that I wouldn’t let my kids swim at.”
View original article on EastOttawa.ca