Ottawa Beaches

[lrt's friend]

Ottawa has changed over the last 100 years. We didn't understand pollution back in those days. There was no air conditioning, so urban beaches were relief from summer heat.

A friend of mine, who lived near Dutchie's Hole in childhood, told me of effluent being released into the Rideau from a slaughter house just upstream. Beach users had to flee when body parts flowed through the beach. Some of those body parts also got sucked into an outdoor pool at New Edinburgh. My brother came down with a communicable disease after swimming at Brewer Park. It is no wonder all those beaches on the lower Rideau closed, all around 1970.

Ottawa beaches were filthy back in the day, and today with better pollution controls, Ottawa's priorities are not to hire adequate numbers of life guards to man more beaches. One can also say that there are not enough candidates for life guards with today's aging population.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Ottawa has changed over the last 100 years. We didn't understand pollution back in those days. There was no air conditioning, so urban beaches were relief from summer heat.

A friend of mine, who lived near Dutchie's Hole in childhood, told me of effluent being released into the Rideau from a slaughter house just upstream. Beach users had to flee when body parts flowed through the beach. Some of those body parts also got sucked into an outdoor pool at New Edinburgh. My brother came down with a communicable disease after swimming at Brewer Park. It is no wonder all those beaches on the lower Rideau closed, all around 1970.

Ottawa beaches were filthy back in the day, and today with better pollution controls, Ottawa's priorities are not to hire adequate numbers of life guards to man more beaches. One can also say that there are not enough candidates for life guards with today's aging population.

Yeah and now we spent $300 million to avoid a few sewage overages a year. We are so much better off than we were in 1970. It's sad we never appreciate it. I wish we'd have beaches without lifeguards. I know kids can drown with parents there but I don't think 10 11 year olds are wandering around swimming by themselves anymore.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by harls

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?

Yup! In fact, last night at Parc Mousette, the lifeguards closed the beach due to thunder in the vicinity, and the closure was in effect until they went off duty.

And once they were off duty, everyone who wanted to go back in the water went back in the water.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Ottawa beaches were filthy back in the day, and today with better pollution controls, Ottawa's priorities are not to hire adequate numbers of life guards to man more beaches. One can also say that there are not enough candidates for life guards with today's aging population.

We need to start weaponizing the aging: there are experienced adults who would lifeguard, if the conditions were right. But we're cheap.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

I wish we'd have beaches without lifeguards. I know kids can drown with parents there but I don't think 10 11 year olds are wandering around swimming by themselves anymore.

Every beach is a beach without lifeguards if you go at the right time of year or day. The only official beach where I wouldn't be comfortable going in without official supervision is Petrie River. I also tend to avoid the Rideau River outside of the testing season.

[kwoldtimer]

The 24/7 news cycle only works if there's lots of drama.

[OTSkyline]

Meanwhile in Quebec City...

[rocketphish]

Ottawa beaches to be safety audited, after multiple drownings
Lifesaving Society set to begin audits next week

Emma Weller, Dan Taekema · CBC News
Posted: Aug 01, 2024 1:00 AM PDT | Last Updated: August 1



Starting next week, all of Ottawa's beaches will undergo a comprehensive safety audit by the Lifesaving Society to identify possible risks they may pose toward residents.

Britannia, Mooney's Bay, Petrie Island and Westboro beaches will be evaluated.

Following the audit, a report will be provided to the City of Ottawa with recommendations on how to make their beachfronts safer for the public.

It comes after the death of a nine-year-old boy last month at Britannia Beach — the latest in a string of drowning fatalities at the same beach since 2020.

He died after being pulled from the water at Britannia Park on the afternoon of June 3.

"It's haunting me and I know it's haunting a lot of people — it just keeps you up at night. It's you know, what could be done," Bay Coun. Theresa Kavanagh said.

Following the drowning, the Ontario coroner's office recommended the City of Ottawa conduct a lifesaving audit of all its beaches.

"Why it didn't happen four years ago, I can't explain," Kavanagh said.

Michael Shane, safety management director of Lifesaving Society's Ontario branch, said the City of Ottawa reached out about two weeks ago with this audit request.

A year ago in July 2023 the coroner's office released a report with results from an investigation into three deaths from 2020 to 2023 at Britannia Beach.

It found all three of those drowning victims were "new arrivals to Canada" and known to be "novice swimmers."

It also found they were all standing or wading close to a "drop-off area" where the depth of the water changes quickly, from roughly half a metre to three metres.

Dan Chenier, the city's general manager of recreation, said in a statement Wednesday that filling or dredging areas of the beach's waterbed would require engineering solutions, and the closure of the beach for a full or partial season.

"It's unfortunate [the audit] has to follow tragedies that have happened," said River Coun. Riley Brockington.

The report said the third death occurred within an hour of lifeguards leaving for the day. It suggests the city should "strongly consider" lifeguard staffing at public beaches that coincides with daylight hours, among other recommendations.

"We know people are there, so why do we not have staffing that matches that need," Brockington said.

The Lifesaving Society will have their own recommendations — but it could take months.

The audit is a three-step process — a review of literature, an inspection and interviews.

Each site inspection will last about three hours, where the team will go through a checklist, take photos and measurements.

They hope to begin their work on Tuesday, weather depending, and the beaches will remain open during their inspections.

"Our preference [is] actually to see them in operation so we can see what the lifeguards are doing, if they're present. We can see what the public are doing and where they are, and it makes it I think a little more realistic and helps us identify perhaps some issues," Shane added.

Once that step is done, interviews will be conducted with at least three "personnel who have something to do with the direction of operation" at beaches, according to Shane.

That is expected to be done in October, and from there, it will be at least 60 days before the City of Ottawa will see a draft report, possibly leading into 2025.

Shane said it's been 14 years since the Lifesaving Society last audited Ottawa beaches for safety, but that it wasn't as extensive as their upcoming assessment.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...ings-1.7280940

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by OTSkyline

Meanwhile in Quebec City...

I'm never sure if people are pointing to this as a good example or a bad one.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

I'm never sure if people are pointing to this as a good example or a bad one.

How could that ever be a "bad" example?

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

How could that ever be a "bad" example?

It signals to me that it's a substitute for not being able to swim in the actual river.

It's also cool as hell, and I can't wait to try it myself, and I'd love to see similar facilities in the NCR as well where wild swimming isn't advisable.

But there's a reason it's an enclosed pool next to the beach, and not an actual beach.

[DTcrawler]

Not that we should be using the Seine as a benchmark, but I really wish people would stop falsely claiming the Ottawa River is too dirty or even unsafe to swim in. It's really no different than swimming at beaches on Lake Ontario in Toronto, or beaches on the Pacific Ocean in Vancouver (both of which also have pollution from shipping activities to add to the mix).

Olympic triathletes swam the Seine in bacteria levels more than 5 times higher than Ottawa River
Acceptable levels of E. coli in Europe are five times higher than Ontario's standards

Jodie Applewaithe · CBC News
Posted: Aug 02, 2024 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: August 2

When Olympic swimmers hit the Seine River in Paris for the triathlon competition Wednesday morning, they were swimming in water with a bacteria count that would be considered unacceptable in Ottawa.

After widespread speculation over whether the river would be clean enough for the athletes, the World Triathlon governing body and the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games found the water quality met the standard to allow the competitions to go ahead Wednesday morning.

"The results of the latest water analyses, received at 3:20 a.m., have been assessed as compliant by World Triathlon, allowing for the triathlon competitions to take place," says a statement issued by both organizations.

The green light came just a day after the men's triathlon was postponed because the level of bacteria present in the river exceeded water quality standards.

Stephen Brown, an associate professor at Queen's University's School of Environmental Studies and Department of Chemistry, said the same thing wouldn't have happened in Ottawa — where the acceptable bacterial level for swimming and recreation is just a fraction of what's considered safe throughout Europe.

"Here in Ontario, we would close a beach if [bacteria was at] the same level as was in the Seine this morning when they jumped into the water," he said.

Many people might be surprised to learn that the Ottawa River is far cleaner than a body of water deemed safe enough for Olympic athletes.

"A lot of people think because we have such a big population and we're right on the river, that the [Ottawa River] can be polluted," said Elizabeth Grater, science programs co-ordinator at Ottawa Riverkeeper.

"The fact that we can go confidently swim in the Ottawa River is just something to really, really emphasize.
- Elizabeth Grater, science programs coordinator at Ottawa Riverkeeper

She said the waterway's condition used to be poor — especially in the 1900s, when industrial waste and raw sewage were entering the river on a regular basis. The city has come a long way since then by improving sewage management and reducing the amount of foreign material that makes its way into the river.

But few people in the Ottawa area seem to know how clean the river is. In 2020, Ottawa Riverkeeper and Abacus Data surveyed 800 Ontario and Quebec residents who lived within 30 kilometres of the Ottawa River. They found that 59 per cent of participants viewed the water in the river as dirty or very dirty. Only 28 per cent considered the water safe for swimming.

Grater said she takes a dip in the river outside the NCC River House every week.

"I think it's just such a nice thing to be able to have [the river] outside of a big city," Grater said.

"The fact that we can go confidently swim in the Ottawa River is just something to really, really emphasize. And in this conversation we're having about the Seine and about water quality, I think it's a beautiful moment to try to highlight the Ottawa River."

Testing for E. coli in Ottawa

Throughout the summer, Ottawa Public Health (OPH) collects water samples daily from City of Ottawa supervised beaches to test for the presence of E. coli bacteria.

The city follows standards set by the Ontario Ministry of Health. Provincial guidelines suggest the average presence of E. coli should be less than 200 colony-forming units per 100 ml of water.

"When elevated levels of E. coli are detected in the water, it is used as an indication that it may be more likely that other disease-causing organisms are also present," said Blayr Kelly, environmental health program manager at OPH.

She said those bacteria can trigger skin, ear, throat or gastrointestinal illnesses.

Grater said Ottawa Riverkeeper focuses on testing water quality at sites along the Ottawa River that don't fall under OPH's purview, like Remic Rapids Park and Lac Beauchamp. Often, Ottawa River E. coli counts fall well below Ontario's threshold at 20 to 50 colony-forming units.

The standards are far less stringent in Paris. Under the European Environment Agency's Bathing Water Directive — used by World Triathlon to determine if water quality is fit for competition — anything below 1,000 E. coli colony-forming units per 100 ml of water is considered safe for swimming.

Brown said that while levels of bacteria that high can cause illness, most Olympic triathletes are willing to take the risk.

He also said it's hard to gauge that risk from day to day because standard, culture-based tests like the ones Paris and Ottawa use take 24 hours to deliver results.

"You're always getting results from a sample that was collected a day before and hoping you understand the trends well enough to know what your levels are going to be on the day when you're actually swimming," he said.

Brown was part of a research team at Queen's that helped to develop IDEXX Tecta, an automated water test that can produce results in 12 hours.

It runs samples in an instrument designed to measure bacteria levels, eliminating the extra time it takes for lab technicians to count E. coli in microplates.

The test was selected as the water testing provider for the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games and has been used at numerous World Triathlon events since 2018.

...

Regardless of E. coli levels, she said, beachgoers should practice safe swimming habits. OPH recommends:

Swimming in supervised areas, where lifeguards are on duty from noon to 7 p.m. every day during the swimming season.

Avoiding entering the water with an open wound.

Keeping your head out of the water and the water out of your mouth.

Showering as soon as possible after swimming and drying ears thoroughly with a towel.

Washing or sanitizing hands after playing in the sand.

Taking children to the toilet before entering the water.

E. coli counts and swimming guidelines for City of Ottawa supervised beaches are available on OPH's website.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...lity-1.7281648

[kwoldtimer]

But all that bacteria in the Seine is Parisian bacteria, so much classier than what the Ottawa has to offer. ...