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
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