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BY AEDAN HELMER,OTTAWA SUN
FIRST POSTED: THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2011 10:12:59 EDT PM
The drastic reduction in raw sewage seeping into the Ottawa River was hailed as a victory for grassroots stewardship, but the city is “just one source” of pollutants, said Ottawa Riverkeeper Meredith Brown at the group’s annual general meeting Thursday.
“You can literally throw a stone across the river between Ottawa and Gatineau, yet there’s no communication, no shared strategy between the municipalities,” said Brown.
More than 2 million people drink the water from the Ottawa River, many of them downstream from the world’s oldest nuclear reactor at Chalk River, not to mention the seven pulp and paper mills that dot the shores or the 50 dams that affect tributaries in the watershed.
“We could probably spend three or four decades working on one single issue,” said Brown. “There has to be collective action happening in parallel if we want to get anything done.
Brown said the flow of sewage has been nearly cut in half since the city’s public works department installed real-time control systems at treatment centres, but there are still challenges in getting Gatineau, and nearly 200 other communities within the watershed, on board.
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