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The city is moving ahead with plans to build a beach pavilion at Petrie Island.
Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Jacques Legendre questioned the wisdom of proceeding with the project because of the amount of contamination in the water near the beach—located downriver from the R.O. Pickard water treatment facility.
“The location ain’t the best to go swimming in,” he said.
Legendre also said spending $900,000—the city’s contribution to the public-private partnership project—is inappropriate when the city is in the middle of sorting out its financial future.
Last summer, the beach at Petrie Island was closed to swimmers for 45 days because of high levels of E.coli, but that didn’t stop visitors from flocking to the sandy banks of the Ottawa River.
The city’s director of parks and recreation, Aaron Burry, said there were 120,000 visits to the beach last summer, down by only 20,000 from the year before.
‘UNUSUAL CONTAMINATION’
Burry said the beach was closed due to “unusual contamination,” and the city is gathering DNA evidence to help locate its source.
Orleans Coun. Bob Monette said he suspects someone was intentionally dumping contaminants in the water.
“I hope bylaw will focus on that rather than other stupid bylaws,” he said.
Innes Coun. Rainer Bloess wants the Petrie Island facility—which will have 18 bathrooms and a canteen—to move forward quickly. He said contamination is a weak argument to not proceed.
In 2000, he said, Britannia Beach was closed 57 days, while Westboro was closed for 46 days.
“If that is the basis for not going ahead with the pavilion, we should close all the city’s beaches,” said Bloess.
Ottawa Sun