Policy and Legislation

To help raise awareness of the challenges facing the Ottawa River, we urge you to ask your local candidates the five essential questions below, and use your vote to advocate for the Ottawa River.

This blog offers a guide to voters on the issues that impact the Ottawa River they can ask their candidates about, drawing from Ottawa Riverkeeper’s 2024 Watershed Report Card.

With the approval of the NSDF project at Chalk River in January, this blog explores the ongoing issue of radioactive waste in the Ottawa River watershed. We reflect on a decade of our work on this critical issue and explain why robust policies and regulations are more crucial than ever to safeguard our waterways for the future.

The Carillon Dam presents the first and largest obstacle to the migration of the American eel into the Ottawa River watershed. Other dams have created eel ladders to enable this vulnerable fish species to migrate upstream, and it is time for Carillon to do the same.

Whether you have heard of them before or not, PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances) are almost everywhere, including your water. Over several decades, there has been increasing concern about the impact of these chemicals on both human health and the broader ecosystem.