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Outaouais residents don’t know whether their beaches are safe because the Quebec environment ministry checks water quality only once a month compared to daily tests in Ottawa, according to Ottawa Riverkeeper Meredith Brown.
The latest E. coli tests on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River on June 17 gave four Gatineau beaches a B rating, which means the province believes the water is safe for swimming.
Ginette Lemay, president of the Chemin du Fer-à-Cheval Residents Association said the river is not safe for swimming or drinking. She said a six-year-old boy who lives on the road that runs parallel to the river in the Masson-Angers sector was hospitalized for two days last week because of an E. coli infection he got after swimming.
Mrs. Lemay said the boy has a sister who was hospitalized with a similar infection in 2006. She said the parents plan to keep their children out of the river and do not want to discuss water quality with the media.
Two children on the street got E. coli infections in 2006 after Ottawa’s release of the equivalent of 350 Olympic-size swimming pools worth of raw sewage and storm water into the river. The federal and Ontario governments and the City of Ottawa are investigating the leak.
Almost 75 per cent of the 230 residents on the street pipe their water from the river because there is no city water.
The residents drink bottled water, but wash and sometimes brush their teeth with river water. Some people suffer from gastrointestinal upsets and others develop skin rashes they suspect are related to bathing in the water.
Gatineau operates beaches at Lac Beauchamp, Lac Leamy, Parc Moussette and the Aylmer Marina.
“During the whole swimming season, the province takes only three water samples,” Ms. Brown said. “That doesn’t give the public good confidence in the water quality because it fluctuates so much from day to day.
“This is not really giving the general public a good idea about fluctuations in water quality at the beaches. If you want to know whether the E. coli count is high on the day you are going to the beach, a test made a month ago isn’t going to help you at all.”
Ms. Brown plans to recommend that Gatineau council urge the environment ministry to increase the frequency of water quality testing at its beaches.
“In Ontario, the municipal health authorities are responsible for water testing, but on the Quebec side the ministry of environment does the testing,” Ms. Brown said. “People on both sides of the river are confused about swimming because they know that raw sewage is going in the river while the beaches remain open.
“They don’t know whether they should swim at municipal beaches or other locations. On the Quebec side of the river, there is no way of telling whether the water is safe or not.”
Ms. Brown said beaches are closed in Quebec when 200 E. coli colonies are found in 200 millilitres of water, while in Ontario, the cutoff point for swimming is 100 E. coli colonies in the same amount of water.
Quebec authorities recommend that people shower and dry themselves with a towel after swimming in the Ottawa River.
The Citizen was not able to contact anyone from the environment ministry yesterday who could explain why E. coli tests are not done more frequently near Gatineau city beaches.
(C) Ottawa Citizen