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What if the very thing used to make the Ottawa River safer is actually killing the life that inhabits it?
“Chlorine is used as a disinfectant and, yes, there are concerns that it may have an impact (on the river). It’s not unique to Ottawa, but there is a concern over that. The concern is that while it does a good job at disinfecting, there’s the flora and fauna and fish downstream. For that reason, the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment has a long-term goal to essentially not release chlorine into the environment,” said Dixon Weir, the city’s director of water and wastewater management.
The city is now conducting a pilot program attempting to find a different way of cleaning the water without putting the dangers of chlorine back into the waterway after it’s been treated.
Weir said there are a couple of different ways that can be done.
One option suggests adding another chemical to the process after disinfection to eliminate the discharge of chlorine; the other suggests not using chlorine at all and disinfecting using a different process.
The city disinfects what goes back into the water after it’s been treated at the R.O. Pickard Centre from mid-May to mid-November.
He said during the colder months of the year, a disinfectant isn’t needed.
Weir said there’s no fear the chlorine will actually kill the river, but there’s a concern about what it is doing.
“Its not so much that it kills the rivers, but there is an impact in the long term, ” he said.
LONG-TERM IMPACT
There are many issues, he said, including its effect on the fish species and the overall environment.
“It’s a long-term, low concentration impact, but the concern is more in areas close to where we’re discharging,” he continued.
“So we’re working on these pilot projects, we have been for a year-and-a-half, looking at a new disinfectant chemical process. We’re taking out a small portion of the effluent before it goes to discharge. That’s what we’re doing now, measuring its performance in terms of disinfecting the discharge back onto raw sewage.”
While the data isn’t complete, it has created an entirely different issue.
“At this point, the concern has been over the ease and handling of this chemical, the need to be creating the correct mixture, in terms of safe handling for workers at the plant.
“This is a stronger chemical. And so we need to make sure from an employee point of view that it’s safe. These are the sorts of trials we’re looking at. It’s offering advantages from an environmental process, but the pilot is being done at a small scale,” he explained.
Before the city contemplates anything more permanent or on a larger scale, there’s much more work to be done, including further discussions with the Ministry of the Environment to gain acceptance for the idea.
MIXED REVIEWS
Meredith Brown, executive director of the Ottawa Riverkeeper, is anxious to see research continue on the effects chlorine is having on the waterway.
“The city chlorinates the water to mixed reviews. Chlorine is not good for aquatic life and there’s a concern about the health impact. But the chlorinating kills off the live bugs you’d find in the waste water.”
But in Gatineau, for example, chlorinating isn’t done.
Alta Vista Coun. Peter Hume agrees further study is needed to determine if there’s a better way of disinfecting the water other than using chlorine.
But as always, he said, there’s a limited pool of money to solve all of the river’s pollution problems.
“We’re looking at chlorinating now. Whatever we do, we need to make sure we’re getting the best bang for our dollar,” said Hume, chairman of the city’s planning and environment committee.
Hume is expecting a report by the fall which will detail priorities for the city, all working towards cleaning up the Ottawa River.
(C) Ottawa Sun