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A city councillor is coming under fire after his comments about continued sewage spills into the Ottawa River.
Last week, Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Gord Hunter said spending billions of dollars to stop the flow of sewage and untreated water into the river is a waste of money because the bacteria, namely E. coli that makes its way into the river after a rainfall and keeps swimmers out of the water, cleans itself in the natural environment and disappears in a couple of days.
“You know it’s bacteria. Bacteria doesn’t live long outside the body. It has about a two-day at most lifespan,” said Hunter. “So you’re proposing to spend billions and billions of dollars to put in a fix for something that fixes itself in 48 hours. The stuff flows part.”
Hunter admits the thought of untreated water being dumped into the river is unthinkable for some people in this day and age.
“If people want to spend the money to clean up the river, so be it. It seems to be the public will,” he said.
Hunter’s remarks shocked staff at the office of the Ottawa Riverkeeper, which acts to protect the health of the river.
“Coun. Hunter was clearly under-informed when he spoke on this issue,” said Natasha Wilson, communications co-ordinator for Ottawa Riverkeeper.
Hunter’s colleague, River Coun. Maria McRae, said the safety of swimmers shouldn’t be compromised and the city should have learned lessons from the 2000 Walkerton tragedy, where seven people died from drinking water contaminated with E. coli.
“People can die if exposed to E. coli,” said McRae. “We can never be too careful when dealing with water issues.”
Hunter was criticized last year when he said the city could take 5% of all the money spent cleaning the river and build an outdoor pool in Orleans. Then, he said, “the one thing that wouldn’t have to go into the Ottawa River is people.”