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Everybody knew the water quality at Petrie Island was poor. Ottawa’s council knew it, yet it created a public swimming area there that opened last year.
Lo and behold, the beach was closed more often than it was open in July. This summer, it has been open much less frequently than the city’s three other beaches.
The problem is E. coli bacteria, which can cause dangerous infections and can indicate other problems in the water. The city tests daily water samples from urban beaches. Petrie Island’s water is usually over the safe limit. Occasionally, its E. coli count is several times the safe limit.
The city has already spent about $2 million developing the beach. That money hasn’t been a total waste: people can swim at Petrie Island on safe-water days, and it’s a nice place to pass an afternoon even if the swimming area isn’t open.
The city should continue to look for the causes of the contamination. It may be that one or two simple, inexpensive measures could improve the water quality enough to keep the beach open on more days. Gull wires seemed to have worked wonders at Britannia Beach, which has been open all summer.
But pristine water may be an unreasonable expectation at Petrie Island. It is downstream from a city, its waste water treatment centre and near the site of an old dump. Ottawa’s sewer system could be contributing to the problem. So could waste from pets and other animals washed into the river with every rainfall.
Any discussion about Petrie Island is complicated by the long debate over the location of a new interprovincial bridge. People who oppose a bridge on the island might be hoping that the more money the city sinks into a recreational area there, the less likely a bridge will be built. Regardless of whether that’s true, the taxpayers of Ottawa are not being well served by expensive new projects that serve only political aims.
It would be great if the beach at Petrie Island were open most summer days, but that’s not worth millions more in public spending. If staff decides a major, expensive project is the only way to clean up the water, councillors should reject it.
Even the city’s cleanest beaches, on their cleanest days, have some E. coli in their water. The pollution of Ottawa’s waterways won’t stop until the city’s residents get smarter about waste, from pet feces to diapers. It won’t stop until the city has the money to invest in new water and sewage infrastructure that is a step above that which is in place now.
Municipalities have complained they have an infrastructure shortage. That infrastructure includes sanitary sewage pipes and storm sewers. Better infrastructure means cleaner water.
In the meantime, Ottawans might have to get used to the fact that urban beaches are unreliable places to swim. A neighbourhood pool might not be as fun, but if the alternative is exposure to an unsafe level of E. coli, the right choice for parents is clear.