Ottawa Beaches

[Dundas]

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

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Dundas

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

[OTownandDown]

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.

Originally Posted by J.OT13

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

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by OTownandDown

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.

[kwoldtimer]

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?

[Uhuniau]

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?