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The next time you flush something down your toilet, you might want to think twice.
You could find yourself swimming next to it if you decide to take a dip in the Ottawa River.
“Most people don’t know what’s going into the river,” said Meredith Brown, executive director of Ottawa Riverkeeper.
Brown was speaking to about 75 people last night at the Ron Kolbus Centre at the Riverkeeper’s annual general meeting.
SHOCKED
Ottawa Riverkeeper is a not-for-profit group dedicated to advocating on behalf of the waterway.
The group is preparing a report for this fall, which will concentrate on municipal sewage, a timely topic given the recent attention given to a 960,000-cubic-metre sewage leak into the Ottawa River.
Brown said most people have been shocked to learn how frequently raw sewage flows into the river.
“I mean, even (federal Environment) Minister John Baird, he’s making high-level decisions, and even he probably doesn’t know.
“The frequency is important for people to understand,” she said.
Brown said there’s general ignorance among the public about what actually gets into the river and how often an overflow of raw sewage flows into the waterway.
FUROR
When there are periods of rainfall, overflow sewage can seep into the river.
Given the furor surrounding the recent dump, which went unreported for almost two years, city staff now advise council every time this occurs.
The most recent report was made yesterday.
Dixon Weir, director of the city’s water and wastewater services, sent an e-mail to councillors telling them that with rainfall on Sunday and Monday, an estimated 14,000 cubic metres of sewage ended up in the river—almost six Olympic swimming pools worth.
Brown said by the time her organization’s report is complete, she hopes to have detailed numbers showing the cumulative impact that the sewage dumps have on the river.
“Obviously, things get diluted in the water flow,” she said. “There are so many different things in there, all the different constituents of sewage stay in various forms, some adhere to sediment and end up flushed through and end up getting in Montreal’s drinking water.”
RAISE AWARENESS
She said Riverkeeper wants to raise awareness surrounding several key issues in its upcoming report.
“Our drinking water is tested, but there’s a list of more than 100 compounds that aren’t getting tested for on a regular basis,” she said.
Ottawa Sun