Posted: September 18, 2025
Ottawa Public Health Refuses to Restore Daily Testing at City-run Beaches
We are frustrated and disappointed by Ottawa Public Health’s decision to stick with weekly testing at City-run beaches into the 2026 swim season, and by the Board of Health’s refusal to intervene. This is bad news for public health and the long-term understanding of water quality trends.
On Monday, Ottawa Riverkeeper presented at the City of Ottawa Board of Health meeting to make the case for restoring daily water quality testing at City-run beaches. We shared a report analyzing both historical daily data and our findings from summer 2025.
Despite our arguments, analysis, and the presentation of a petition signed by over 1,800 Ottawa residents, Ottawa Public Health has chosen to stick with weekly testing for the 2026 season. In fact, the only lens used to make this decision was through evaluating the effectiveness of the test, not the conditions at the beaches and how changing trends may affect these results. The Board of Health did not intervene, and our concerns were left unanswered. It is a disappointing outcome that undermines both understanding of and trust in this City’s incredible beaches.
Our concerns
When Ottawa Public Health first announced the change to the frequency of water quality monitoring at the start of the 2025 swim season, we heard confusion and concern from Ottawa residents. Daily water quality testing isn’t perfect; results take 24 hours to process, and so do not give swimmers a real-time idea of water quality at beaches. However, the additional information that daily testing provides is invaluable. It allows the monitoring of trends and gives swimmers a better understanding of conditions at the beach than a week-old result.
The Board of Health initially acknowledged these concerns, asking OPH to analyze the difference between weekly and daily testing and directed OPH staff to collaborate with Ottawa Riverkeeper in this process, given our long-term understanding of recreational water quality. Unfortunately, OPH presented us with a completed report that glossed over the critical issues that were raised. This fell short of the collaborative effort we expected, which is why we produced our own analysis.
Our analysis
In response, we conducted our own study and supplemented OPH’s weekly data with additional monitoring at three Ottawa beaches. We assembled a report that paints a more nuanced picture of the water quality at Ottawa Beaches.
Our findings revealed several trends not discussed in OPH’s report:
While water quality at Ottawa Beaches looks good when all the data is aggregated, separating out individual beaches tells another story. Petrie East Bay, for example, is a persistent hotspot for poor water quality, while Mooney’s Bay varies throughout the summer.
Breaking results down by month also shows a strong disparity, with water quality results worsening in August compared to earlier in the season.
Most troubling, the data show E. coli levels increasing over time across all Ottawa beaches.
These trends show several different ways recreational water quality can be understood, and that these impact residents disproportionately. While someone who swims at Britannia Beach tends to enjoy remarkable water quality all summer long, those who spend the summer at Petrie East Bay or Mooney’s Bay, for example, face more uncertainty about the E. coli levels at these beaches.
All of these trends get harder to track and communicate to the public now that OPH has reduced the frequency of testing. Given the trends captured in our analysis, and the unknown pressures the City-run beaches may face in coming years due to factors such as climate change and the growing population of the city, now is not the time to strip data collection to 14% of what had been done previously.
Conclusion
Ottawa deserves better. At Ottawa Riverkeeper, we are frustrated and concerned by this decision to reduce services, which not only provides swimmers with less information but also risks the City having less reliable data to manage City-run beaches.
This decision also appears to be at odds with the evidence-based approach required to inform decision-making, particularly given the numerous uncertainties surrounding the impact of summer heat waves and reduced rainfall on future recreational water quality. As an organization that works to promote data-based decision-making, we remain optimistic that the City of Ottawa considers what this decision means for City-run beaches over the long term and the importance of supporting robust water quality monitoring.
As expected. The Councillors on the Board really don’t have a scientific background, only 2 Members with Nursing should have taken a science course. OPH’s report was confusing in that weekly and daily tests were compared in predicting no-swim advisories.There is a correct tool for everything and the tests were never meant for that, although implied through bad communication. OPH has discontinued issuing no-swim advisories, and didn’t really inform the public much about beach quality in 2025 as they did in the past. Board either supports the findings of City staff or an NGO. This is how governments works(being on the Gov’t side for 30 years or so). If I were to do the sampling/testing …. At the start of the season, sample 3 times a week, every 2nd day. Go to once a week if all 3 results are good, or sample until 3 test results in a row are good. When the water quality deteriorates, sample every day or every second day until the test results are good. During the swim season, randomly select a beach and sample 3 times a week.
It frightens me, how poorly this city is run, I worked in housing/ shelters for 25 yrs, I can tell you it makes me very angry at the extreme bloat in policing, extreme mismanagement in housing ( billions spent weekly for virtually a resettlement policy but not saying that , hotels , a huge boondoggle, new Canadians arriving from airport housed in a hotel ( if you are a family ) it’s just laughable, the bloated OPS…. Yet you can’t test our water daily .., “Because the tests always come out the same “ are you kidding me ??? Really ??? I am so anyright now !!! As an open body swimmer this makes me so angry