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Ryan Cormier
EDMONTONJOURNAL.COM
EDMONTON — The North Saskatchewan River has a new keeper, a full-time charitable guardian dedicated to the conservation of the river and the watershed that feeds it.
Glenn Isaac, Edmonton’s first riverkeeper, said the charity’s aim is to ensure people can enjoy the river in the most basic ways.
“Our vision is a watershed where we can all safely and enjoyably swim, drink and fish,” he said.
The North Saskatchewan Riverkeeper group, funded by private donations, will become involved with water testing, water quality issues, addressing citizen concerns, and distributing information through the Internet and public information sessions.
The group, brought to Edmonton by Karen Percy Lowe, has already participated in Alberta utility board hearings on hydroelectric projects.
The next few years, Isaac said, will bring layers of legislation, plans and policy for the river and the vast watershed that feeds into it. The group hopes to provide an informed voice at the table.
“We’re inundated with information about water issues in our world and province, and we would like to provide context,” he said. “We are the only group right now that has the ability to create a one-stop shop on our website for all information related to the swimability, drink-ability and fishability of these waters.”
The Waterkeeper Alliance, an international organization headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., involves 190 water conservation groups in the United States and nine in Canada.
Percy Lowe, chairwoman and president of the local chapter, has worked with Kennedy’s broader organization for years and wanted a local presence for Edmonton.
“You’ve heard the term a river runs through it, and this river runs through our city. It’s an integral part of our community,” Lowe said at the group’s launch in a riverside backyard. “There are a lot of water bodies that are in more peril than ours. We’re quite comfortable, the river is beautiful and fairly clean. We get our drinking water out of it, people play in it, you can fish and swim in it.”
However, the group is not without its concerns. While Edmonton is the focus because of the large population dependent on the river, those numbers present their own dangers.
“As a large population, we have also contributed greatly to the cumulative effects of urban expansion and growth, agricultural activity, industrial activity and wetlands loss.”
Percy Lowe and Isaac have already put a year’s work into the preparation of the North Saskatchewan River chapter. Isaac, from Edmonton, has a history of charitable work, including efforts to provide clean drinking water in the Third World.
Edmonton Oilers president Kevin Lowe will act as one of the group’s directors.
Kennedy was last in Alberta in January, at a Waterkeeper Alliance fundraiser in Banff, where he raised concerns when he asserted 90 per cent of the province’s fish are inedible, a problem the group claims is international, and not confined to Alberta.
Mark Mattson has been the water-keeper for Lake Ontario since 2001, and attended the Edmonton launch. He envisions the group will act as a conduit for those who want to learn more about the river, but don’t know where to start.
The day when people can use cell-phones to find information about specific rivers, lakes and other areas is not far away, he said.
The groups will focus on the North Saskatchewan River, but also the watershed that flows into it, including bodies of water such as Lac St. Anne and Pigeon Lake.
Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/North+Saskatchewan+River+gets+keeper/3623117/story.html#ixzz11bWsJrYN