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Residents of a street along the Ottawa River in the Masson-Angers sector of Gatineau wonder why, in one of Canada’s largest urban areas, they must get untreated water from a river plagued by frequent sewage spills.
Ginette Lemay, the president of the Chemin du Fer-à-Cheval community association, said 74 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.
Few people treat the water to eliminate bacteria because treatment systems are expensive.
Mrs. Lemay said two children got E. coli infections in 2006 and one had to be hospitalized 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.
“We wrote a letter to the mayor of Gatineau because we had no idea what was happening,” Mrs. Lemay said. “What worries us is Ottawa and Gatineau still dump sewage into the river,” Mrs. Lemay said.
“People have to use river water when they want to take a shower or wash. One man who has one-inch white bumps all over his body that look like mushrooms was told by his doctor that they are caused by washing with water from the river.”
Jean-Yves Appignani, 39, who has lived on the street for 17 years, said he has white and sometimes red lumps on his skin that his doctor thinks are caused by river water.
“It is like some kind of rash, but you don’t always see them,” Mr. Appignani said. “They are like humps and are visible mainly in the summer.
“I don’t have a $15,000 treatment unit because I don’t have the money. And even if you do have treatment, it doesn’t eliminate everything.”
Mrs. Lemay said a few residents of Chemin du Fer-à-Cheval can obtain their tap water from wells, but those who live close to the shore draw their water from the river because their ground water is contaminated with fecal matter.
Most Masson-Angers residents have city water, but Gatineau refused to supply it on the street when the former municipality joined Gatineau in 2002 because the area is in the Ottawa River floodplain and outside the urban part of the city.
“We find it unacceptable that there is so much garbage dumped into the river and we have to use it for washing,” Mrs. Lemay said. “The city says it would cost $4 million to $5 million to put in a pipe.
Gatineau also sends sewage into the river every time there is a heavy rainfall or the snow melts too quickly for its combined storm and sanitary sewers to handle.
Waste from older neighbourhoods between Aylmer and Buckingham doesn’t necessarily go to Gatineau’s sewage treatment plant on Notre-Dame and Campeau streets. Much of it flows into the river through 96 storm water outlets.
Quebec municipal affairs ministry records show that Gatineau released sewage into the Ottawa River 1,493 times in 2007. City staff don’t have any estimate of the amount of sewage that is dumped, but environment ministry officials say river water quality meets most provincial standards.
Alain d’Entremont, a spokesman for the City of Gatineau, said the city releases mixed sewage and storm water into the river during heavy rain storms to keep sewage from backing up into basements.
“The lack of city water has been an issue on Chemin du Fer-à-Cheval for years,” Mr. d’Entremont said.
“This is one of the many issues we have with drinking water. We haven’t decided yet how or when we will solve the water problem in Masson-Angers.”