Ottawa Beaches
 

I wanted to discuss the water quality at some of Ottawa's city run beaches. For many years now I heard a lot of people around town saying that Petrie Island Beach has the worst water quality because of the down stream flow of the river. I want to know your feedback and thinking on this. I personally find Petrie Beach to be the nicest of Ottawa's beaches.

How come recently Westboro Beach has been closed for the high levels of E.coli but Petrie Beach remains open with low levels.

July 9th Beach Water Sampling Results:
Westboro: 378
Mooney's Bay: 16
Petrie Island East Bay: 24
Petrie Island River Beaches: 34

A beach is closed for swimming when the e.coli is higher than 200per 100ml of water as per Ontario water quality standard for beach water quality.

https://www.ottawapublichealth.ca/en...sults-for-2020

To be honest, that's always been my perspective as well.

Now I don't know if there's a pattern showing that the water quality at Petrie is overall better than Westboro, but I suspect the placement of water treatment plants and combined sewer outlets in both Ottawa and Gatineau might have an effect.

Here's a 12 page report I found on combined sewer overflow in the region. I have not read it yet, but it might provide some insight (?)

https://www.ottawariverkeeper.ca/wp-...and-Beyond.pdf

This could be just heresay, but from what I've heard, the combined sewer overflow in Aylmer is especially bad. And with Gatineau having their combined sewers overflow in dry weather, the potential is there for Westboro beach to have high ecoli. Does it get cleaned up through the falls?

I know after a rainfall, you can forget about all beaches, the levels go way up. We're a long way from removing all the raw sewage from the river.

Does Gatineau have any plans to divert raw sewage from the river? They've been doing some amazing work on other fronts of the environmental efforts (garbage diversion, new building regulations that include green roofs, protecting sensitive natural habitats), but I haven't heard anything in terms of reducing sewage spills.

Kudos to Ottawa for building the combined sewage storage tunnels, but that won't do anything to help Westboro Beach.

I thought the bigger issue wrt the beaches was stormwater runoff vs the occasional combined runoff. I.e. dog and goose poop more than the human variety. Am I mistaken?

I think storm runoff and bird/animal crap are the worst drivers of poor quality during swim season (and the unofficial shoulders seasons.)

Anyone know if Britannia is completely fenced in, or is there still space to sneak in a quick paddle?

Ottawa needs more beaches — and it once had them
The overwhelming enthusiasm for the NCC’s River House demonstrates the local desire to get into the water. Ottawa should make it easier.

Jordan Moffatt
Published Jun 17, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read

Walk around Dutchie’s Hole Park in Sandy Hill and it won’t be immediately clear to you who this Dutchie is and where you can find his titular hole. The hole, it turns out, is a swimming hole — more accurately, a former swimming hole. Thousands enjoyed dipping into the Rideau River here until the city shut it down more than 40 years ago, along with other swimming spots at Brewer Park, Brighton Park, Brantwood Park and semi-official locations such as Remic Beach. With a growing population and hotter summers in Ottawa, should places like these be opened again for beach season?

Before you strap on your bathing suit, it’s worth remembering that these beaches closed for a reason: poor water quality. Dutchie’s Hole had problems with waste washing ashore, including one incident involving a pig’s head (likely sourced from a slaughterhouse upstream, though it denied responsibility). But this was just a minor issue compared to the E. coli levels. Currently, the City of Ottawa recommends against swimming if E. coli exceeds 200 per 100 ml of water (in a mean of five samples). In 1968, when the city started taking water pollution seriously, both Brantwood Beach and Dutchie’s Hole had total coliform counts over 3,000. Ten years later, the beaches had improved but would exceed safe limits by the end of summer.

With that amount of fecal content in Dutchie’s Hole, it’s no wonder citizens were advised against dipping their toes in. But time has gone by, many people have worked hard at conservation efforts, new and better pipes were built, and the water has improved. The City of Ottawa now boasts on its website that the Rideau River quality is “good to excellent.” And although it doesn’t test the exact sites of the former beaches, nearby readings suggest E. coli levels at the former beaches — and even at Dow’s Lake — are comparable to levels at the four current supervised beaches at Mooney’s Bay, Britannia, Westboro (which won’t open officially this year) and Petrie Island.

Despite this, the city doesn’t plan on adding new beaches — which means that the proportion of beaches will actually decrease from its 2021 level of one for every 266,700 residents to one for every 306,300 by 2031. This rate compares poorly with Kingston (1:13,400), Vancouver (1:62,600), and Hamilton (1:73,100) — though it is roughly on par with Montreal and Toronto (eight and 11 beaches, respectively, for their larger populations). Instead, the city is investing in more splashpads, planning to construct 35 new ones by 2031, bringing the ratio to one for every 6,800 residents (though they are mostly used by children).

Is this the right call? Splashpads are certainly easier to manage given the lifeguard shortage. Plus, it’s not as if the region is short on beaches: natural outdoor swimming is available in Gatineau Park and many provincial parks within an hour-or-two drive. And maybe the nostalgic picture of mid-century beachgoers on the Rideau glosses over the more unpleasant reality of stomach aches, ear infections and sliced-up feet.

But public opinion isn’t on the city’s side. The city’s survey on its parks plan found the idea of more local beaches had a “notably high level of support.” People are voting with their feet (or flippers) too: attendance at the city’s four beaches jumped 40 per cent between 2019 and 2022. The overwhelming enthusiasm for the NCC’s spectacular new River House demonstrates the local desire to dive back into the water.

A bigger, hotter city means Ottawa City Hall should prioritize more supervised, water-tested outdoor swimming as part of its recreation plans. In the meantime, let’s install information plaques at the former beaches to show residents what they’re missing — a “people used to swim here” project. The panel in Sandy Hill might describe a young man named Charles Haak, son of immigrants from Deutschland, whose enthusiasm for swimming in the Rideau River has been enshrined for a century. Dutchie’s Splashpad just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Jordan Moffatt is an Ottawa writer.

https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/mo...-once-had-them

All the beaches here are kind of yucky and tepid.


(cue Uhuniau comment)

It's weird how many Ottawans are so repulsed by swimming in our entirely clean waterways which are mostly free of large-scale industrial activities. Meanwhile you go to a city like Amsterdam and it feels like all the locals are flocking to swim in all kinds of ponds, canals, and lagoons which look/feel no different than our options, but have the added consideration of heavy marine traffic and industrial activity. Not to mention in Paris, the Olympic swimming events are being held in the Seine River of all places...

Did you hear about this?

https://www.greenmatters.com/communi...he-seine-river

I saw people swimming in the Canal yesterday.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...cd6fbbb6_b.jpg

We may get an urban beach at Nepean Inlet at some point in the future. That's something, right?

Yet the beaches are constantly closed "or have warning advisories against swimming" due to high volumes of E.Coli (as was the case with Britannia this week).

Yeah not sure about the theory our beaches are clean? Monday E Coli. Tuesday clean Thursday E Coli again. How clean was it really on Tuesday?

I don't think people in Paris are flocking to swim in the Seine. The beach is popular but it's more of a scene than a swimming thing.

Interesting that River House is very popular but being past Ottawa it should be dirtier if anything than beaches further up the river that people worry about.

Ottawa needs more outdoor swimming pools, not just wading pools and splash pads.
Just look at those you can find in Montreal, Dorval, etc.

(Cracks knuckles.)

The Ottawa River had a serious pollution problem for over 100 years, both industrial and sewage. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the water quality was actually killing people.

In the late 1960s/early 70s, new public health standards came into being, and the urban beaches were failing those standards in spectacular fashion. Water testing meant the beaches were closed more than they were open, some for entire seasons, and some were shut down for good.

But also starting in the 70s, new policies and infrastructure meant the water quality started to improve. Slowly at first, then less slowly, and finally the big enchilada of the poop tunnel took care of the single biggest problem.

The city and others have data which objectively demonstrate that the river is safe, per standards, the vast majority of the time now. And even when it's not safe, it's still "safe enough". I honestly don't know that I've heard of anyone getting a rash or infection, which used to be a very common problem.

But people haven't changed their priors. The cultural "fact" that the river is "dirty" stubbornly refuses to die.

Oh well. More river for the rest of us, I guess.

No, they are not "constantly" closed or under advisory.

They really are not.

This is objectively false.

It's the same thing with weather advisories here now. 20 years ago we didn't have this kind of coddling.

Are we even 'allowed' to swim at a beach without a lifeguard today?

The hysteria this week is just weird. While it's a bit early 30+ is very normal for Ottawa. I recall on June 14th the record was 36 in 1988. It was 34 yesterday and humid but not excessively so. Meanwhile schools are being cancelled and a panic is widespread.