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Sun worshippers who frequent a popular east end city beach may not realize it, but they have been sunbathing and swimming in human poo.
A study by Environment Canada at Petrie Island Beach and nearby waters between May and October last year shows the water and sand at Petrie is contaminated with human fecal matter.
The sands and swimming water along the beach also contain a high level of bird and waterfowl droppings and that the beach sand is “serving as a reservoir for E. coli.”
“Observation of floatables on the beach at times, was indicative of the impacts of human fecal pollution,” the study says. “E. coli concentrations at Petrie Island Beach were higher in the sand than in the adjacent beach water, and they increased in the sand and beach water over the course of the bathing season.”
CONSTANT CONTAMINATION
Environment Canada took water samples at ankle and chest depths each month during the testing period and contaminated water was discovered each time.
The study, which will be tabled at next week’s community and protective services committee meeting, says that water quality monitoring upstream of Petrie Island and the city’s three waste water treatment plants showed the lowest occurrence of fecal matter and E. coli.
However, concentrations of fecal matter were highest downstream of waste water facilities where, for the past 70 years the city has dumped waste water residue into the Ottawa River, and the flow takes it past Petrie Island.
“The source of human fecal contamination at the beach appeared to be most closely associated with fecal pollution sources on the Ontario side of the Ottawa River in 2007,” the study says.
After a walk along the beach by government officials before it officially opened for the 2007 season, they discovered much more than untreated municipal waste water.
“A walk along the entire length of the beach resulted in observations of 37 tampon applicators, five condoms and two syringes. These observations suggest there was some impact from untreated municipal wastewater.”
Orleans Coun. Bob Monette said the beach was closed for only six days last summer compared to more than 40 in 2006 and that the contamination is no worse at Petrie Island than at other city beaches.
“It’s still a place where Ottawa residents want to be in the summer,” he said.
Earlier this week, the Sun reported that the city is in non-compliance with two orders by the provincial and federal governments to halt dumping contaminated water into the Ottawa River from its three wastewater treatment facilities.
The city is experiencing construction delays at the R.O. Pickard Environmental Centre, upstream of Petrie Island, which it was ordered to have resolved three months ago. City officials have told the two levels of government it anticipates the problems will be fixed by July at the latest.
Ottawa Sun