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The Ontario Ministry of Environment has rejected a plan to remove 737,000 litres of water daily from the shallow Jock River to irrigate the Riverbend Golf and Country Club, west of Richmond, out of concern that doing so would kill the river’s fish.
In a decision released late last week, the Environmental Review Board denied the golf club’s request for a 10-year permit to take water between April 15 and Oct. 1 because of low water in the river.
Critics said the club’s proposal to take water from the Jock River for up to 100 days a year would “suck the river dry” during the summer. They said removing that amount of water would exceed the river’s flow.
The Rideau Valley Conservation Authority measured the flow of the Jock at 691,200 litres daily in October 2002. Patrick Larson, an official with the agency, said the Jock River is in the midst of a Category 2 drought, which means anyone using water from the river should reduce consumption by 20 per cent. Removing a large amount of water could kill fish, birds and animals that depend on the river, he said.
“Given the current conditions, any water-taking, even a minor one, could cause any stream to dry up,” Mr. Larson said. “It wouldn’t take much more to cause a traumatic impact on the river.”
Riverbend’s permit to take 227,300 litres daily from the river expired in April 2004. An application in 2002 to pump 1.1 million litres of water from the river was also denied.
The golf club’s current water removal permit allows owner Frank Chiarelli, brother of Ottawa Mayor Bob Chiarelli, to use up to 50,000 litres daily for irrigation. He said he does not plan to appeal the ministry’s decision. He said the amount of water he is allowed to remove from the river is sufficient for now.
A federal Fisheries and Oceans Department submission to the hearing on the proposed water removal permit said there should be enough water in the river to maintain habitat and sustain fish migration.
Brian Finch, president of Friends of the Jock River, said members of the organization are pleased the permit was rejected because the river can’t withstand the removal of so much water in summer.
“The amount of water the golf course was proposing to take from the river would have exceeded its flow last week,” Mr. Finch said. “The river has been virtually dry in that area for much of the summer.”
At Ashton, about six kilometres above the club, “we had only enough water going through the dam to fill a plastic pail every 15 or 20 seconds. That is not much water for a river.”
He said the river floods during the spring, but its flow is reduced to a trickle in summer.
“The amount of water the golf course was proposing to take from the river would have exceeded its flow last week,” he said.
He acknowledged it will be difficult to maintain the course next year in a drought, because 50,000 litres of water daily would not keep the grass green.
He said the club could excavate large ponds, fill them with water from the river during the spring and use it for irrigation throughout the summer. It could also use deep wells.
Mr. Chiarelli dismissed alternatives to river water-taking suggested by Mr. Finch. “We can’t dig a well or make some ponds for storing water, because the bedrock is very close to the surface there.”
He said he hasn’t taken any water from the river for a month, although “if there was a drought, we would take our 50,000 litres.”
© The Ottawa Citizen 2005