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The North Saskatchewan River now has an advocacy group looking out for its protection.
The North Saskatchewan Riverkeeper organization, which launched in Edmonton on Monday, aims at not just monitoring and protecting the watershed, which is roughly the size of England, but also the land surrounding the river and the water that drains into it.
It is the charity’s hope that it can inspire the public to take a role in keeping track of the river’s cleanliness.
“Our ultimate goal as an organization, is to allow everybody that partakes in the North Saskatchewan watershed …to be able to swim in the water, drink the water and eat the fish out of the water,” said Edmonton Oilers president Kevin Lowe who alongside his wife Olympic medallist Karen Percy Lowe head the group.
Glenn Isaac, executive director of Riverkeeper said that while there are many reaches of the North Saskatchewan River that are healthy a lot of the water quality is degraded downstream of Edmonton because of the accumulative effects of the number of urban and economic activity.
Lowe said his group is working on an iPhone application that will keep river users up to date on the water quality at various points along the bank.
The organization is part of the international Waterkeeper Alliance led by environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Currently there are eight waterkeeper programs in Canada, and 191 worldwide.
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