Accessibility and Access Keys [0]
What appeared to be hundreds of mysterious blobs of foam — some as large as garbage pails — were spotted drifting along the waterways near Petrie Island on Friday.
The City of Ottawa fielded several calls reporting the strange, soapy sight in the morning, but officials have now informed residents there is no cause for concern.
According to the city, the foam is naturally occurring and not harmful to humans, likely resulting from the decomposition of organic materials.
Meredith Brown, the executive director of the Ottawa Riverkeeper, seconded that opinion.
Size of soccer balls
“But it can be exacerbated,” Brown said. Human activity, such as sewage discharge, as well as runoff from lawns and farms, all contribute to forming the sudsy patches. And large volumes of rain — such as the record precipitation the region has experienced this spring — often make larger clumps.
The bubbles certainly caught Euan Swan’s eye this morning from his backyard on the shore of the Ottawa River.
“I looked out and I wasn’t quite sure what I was seeing,” he said.
While some of the foam clots were about the size of soccer balls, he said others were the size of garbage pails.
‘A little scary’
Swan paddled out in his canoe to grab a bucketful of the foam to send to the city to analyze.
“It would be nice to know what has occurred this morning and if there are spillages occurring,” he said.
Upstream at Petrie Island, Bruce Presley and his wife also dropped in for a look after spotting the foam from Hwy 174.
“It’s a little scary, considering what else comes out of here, and the reports of sewage,” Presley said.
While Brown assured the foam won’t harm us, she said it does serve as a reminder about how humans impact wildlife.
“It’s a reminder that while it might not hurt us, it can affect aquatic species,” she said.
Copyright © CBC 2011
Full article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2011/05/20/ottawa-foam-river889.html