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OTTAWA — Residents of the Masson-Angers sector of Gatineau who live beside the Ottawa River have asked Quebec Environment Minister Line Beauchamp to force the city to provide them with clean drinking water.
People living on Chemin du Fer-à-Cheval wonder why, in one of Canada’s largest urban areas, they must use untreated water that causes skin rashes and digestive upsets.
They buy bottled drinking water but pump water directly from the river for showers, washing fruit and vegetables and brushing teeth. Some people suffer from gastrointestinal upsets and others have developed rashes they suspect are related to bathing in the water.
Ginette Lemay, the president of the Chemin du Fer-à-Cheval community association, said Thursday 74 per cent of the 230 residents on the street pipe their water from the river because there is no city water.
Bringing city water to the street would cost $3.7 million. Residents would pay 40 per cent of the cost and the city, provincial and federal governments would pay the rest.
Few people treat the water to eliminate bacteria because treatment systems are expensive. Lemay said one family spent $55,000 for water treatment equipment.
“The city made an offer to us so we could pay for city water based on our frontage on the river,” Lemay said. “But then the cost would be extremely high — up to $3,000 a year for some people which doesn’t make sense.
“We went back to the city and suggested we all pay the same cost or about $895 per household per year for 25 years but city council voted 12 to four against the plan. Some councillors didn’t want it to go through because they have a policy to concentrate on downtown were concerned that more houses would be built in our rural area.”
Lemay said that such concern is not justified because city regulations already prevent higher housing density in the flood plain and in a rural neighbourhood. She said there isn’t room for more lots because all the lots are tiny and houses must be at least 15 metres from the river.
“The water is not drinkable, but the majority of people still use it so there is a risk all the time,” Lemay said. “We are counting on the minister to used one article of Quebec’s environment law to force the city to provide us with drinking water and to fix the amount we would pay.”
Lemay said two children got E. coli infections in 2006 and one had to be hospitalized after Ottawa released the equivalent of 350 Olympic-size swimming pools worth of raw sewage and storm water into the river.
Jean-Yves Appignani, 39, who has lived on the street for 18 years, complained in 2008 that he had white and sometimes red lumps on his skin that his doctor believed were caused by river water.
“It is like some kind of rash, but you don’t always see them,” Appignani said. “They are like humps and are visible mainly in the summer.
Appignani said he couldn’t afford to spend $15,000 on water treatment equipment and even if he installed a filtration unit it wouldn’t eliminate all contaminants.
Lemay said a few residents of Chemin du Fer-à-Cheval can obtain their tap water from wells, but those who live close to the shore draw their water from the river because their ground water is contaminated with fecal matter.
Dave Leclerc, a spokesman for Line Beauchamp, said the minister is considering the request but he wouldn’t promise she would intervene.
“We received the residents’ letter on Monday and for the moment we will not comment on the demands. The minister could force the city to provide drinking water but an order from the minister would arrive at the end of a long process of negotiation between the residents and the municipality.”
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