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OTTAWANS AREN’T being warned away from local beaches despite hundreds—or thousands—of rotting catfish washing ashore along the Ottawa River as close as Constance Bay.
People in Constance Bay reported finding dead fish Monday, said Jean-Guy Albert of Ottawa Public Health. His staff have taken water samples and collected fish for lab testing.
The Constance Bay sightings are the eastern edge of a mystery die off of channel catfish now covering about 60 km of shoreline, up from 25 km earlier this week.
Nothing like it has ever been seen on the Ottawa River.
Samples within city limits last week showed excellent water quality along the river. City beaches are tested daily.
“Nobody has come to me and said there is a contamination in the water,” Albert said. “Our results say there is no contamination. We’ve taken the position not to issue a don’t swim advisory. People are free to do whatever they feel is comfortable for them.”
There’s no threat to the city’s drinking water, but it’s never safe to drink raw river water, Albert said.
People in Renfrew County were warned again not to drink or swim in the water as the probe of the fish kill more than doubled in size yesterday. Beaches in Braeside and Arnprior remained closed and the Ministry of Natural Resources warned people not to eat river fish.
A dozen MNR staff were on the river between the Chenaux Dam and south of the Chats Falls Dam below Arnprior, where scores of fish have been found dead.
“We’ve never seen an event like this on the Ottawa River,” MNR spokesman Doug Skeggs said. “That’s from our collective knowledge and people who have lived on the river for 50 years telling us that as well.”
Spiking late-summer water temperatures have been known to kill fish, but never before in the deep, cold Ottawa River.
But there’s no evidence of a spill along the river either.
“We haven’t eliminated any possibilities at this point,” Skeggs said. “Right now it’s an unanswered question.”
Rumours swirled along the river yesterday.
People were lined up outside an Arnprior supermarket at 7 a.m. to buy bottled water after false reports that the town’s water was contaminated, said Bob Schreader, acting manager of environmental health of the Renfrew County and District Health Unit.
Renfrew draws water from the Bonnechere River and Arnprior from the Madawaska. Both have modern treatment plants.
“We have no reports of human illness,” Schreader said. “We’re going to err on the side of caution. Everything may be fine, but until we get some concrete information about what’s causing this, we’re going to be cautious.”