The canal is full of garbage but no one is willing to pick it up
By Jocelyn Dickey
As the weather warms up and the ice melts off the Rideau Canal’s famous skating rink, low water levels reveal an array of garbage and debris littering the bottom and floating on the surface of the water.
In one place close to Carleton University, a bike is clearly visible in the canal’s murky depths. There is also an assortment of litter, plastic bags and dead branches.
“I’ve noticed a lot of garbage lately,” says Sheena Santos, who enjoys walks along the canal. “I think they should clean it up.”
During the past few summers, when water levels are at their highest, there have been a lot of weeds growing in the canal.
Add to this the pungent smell which starts to appear as the weather warms up and one has to wonder just how clean the water in the canal is and who is responsible for keeping it clean.
The Rideau Canal is jointly managed by Parks Canada and the National Capital Commission.
“(The NCC) operates the rink in the winter time and looks after maintaining its cleanliness,”says Parks Canada sector supervisor Marcel Belanger.
“We are responsible for maintenance during the navigational season, (from the time) we bring the water up to the main level beginning in May, until we bring the water down at the end of October.”
During the winter, the NCC’s responsibilities include flooding and clearing snow off the rink, as well as picking up any debris and litter on the ice or left over from Winterlude.
Belanger says the NCC is responsible for cleaning up the litter and debris which are now visible in the canal and for keeping it clean until the navigation season starts.
NCC project manager Marc Corriveau says keeping the canal clean is an ongoing process. “During the (skating) season, we have crews cleaning the canal daily but a lot of the litter we don’t see until we have a thaw,” Corriveau says. “When we remove the structures (after Winterlude) there is debris under them and when concessionaires leave, they are instructed to clean up debris.”
He says the litter problem is worse at this time of year as the seasons change. “The ice isn’t very stable,” he says. “We wait until it melts then clean (the canal) with boats.”
Despite its appearance, the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority and the Region of Ottawa-Carleton, who also share responsibility for the canal, say the water quality is good.
Biologist Stuart Dean, a program co-ordinator at the region’s surface water quality branch, says because the Rideau River and the canal are interconnected, the state of one is indicative of the other.
“The general thought of the Rideau River is that it is polluted because it has a greenish tinge,” he explains. “It’s actually quite healthy and doing quite well . . . from an ecological perspective.”
As part of the monitoring program, the surface water quality branch tests the water in the canal at Heron Road, Bronson Avenue and Downtown.
“From a human standpoint based on the (most recent) report from 1998, all the locations were below the provincial water quality objective for E.coli bacteria,” Dean says.
Counts of E.coli bacteria are used to determine whether water is safe for humans. High concentrations of the bacteria indicate pollution problems relating to such things as sewage or farm animals.
“We test for other parameters,” Dean says. “But (E.coli) is the only one that is specifically related to human recreational use of water.”
He says they also monitor for phosphorous, PH, suspended solids and conductivity, which are all important parameters to indicate quality in the environment.
High concentrations of phosphorous can lead to the overgrowth of aquatic plants.
Dean says agricultural inputs from the area surrounding Ottawa and storm water inputs from the city contribute to higher levels of phosphorous in the canal.
“From what we can tell, the river has always had high levels of phosphorous naturally,” he says.
The Rideau Valley Conservation Authority covers all of the Rideau watershed, which includes the river and all its tributaries in the surrounding region. Its main focus is flood plain management. “The quality is not as important because it is not for swimming and not for drinking,” says Patrick Larson, a water resources technician with the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority.
Despite assurance that the canal water is safe, trash and litter continue to be a problem. Because the NCC and Parks Canada say they can’t do anything about it, people like Sheena Santos, who enjoy using the canal, have no choice but to get used to it.