The Ottawa River is one of the most developed waterways in Canada, according to a new report from the World Wildlife Fund.
This means a better approach is needed to address the jurisdictional challenges that plague it, say those concerned about the river’s well-being.
The study, which included updates on 10 of Canada’s major river systems, listed the Ottawa River as having a fair, but declining status.
This is largely because of the more than 50 major dams on the river.
Hydroelectric dams, like the Chats Falls dam near Arnprior, have a large impact on the flow of the river.
They change the natural water movement and “compromis[e] habitat and the diversity and distribution of the river’s fish and shoreline vegetation,” says the report.
The WWF adds that because the waterway falls between Quebec and Ontario, managing development is extremely difficult as “provincial regulations differ greatly on each side of the river.”
“The report itself speaks for the need for a more collaborative approach to approving projects and protecting the river,” says Natasha Wilson, director of community relations for Ottawa Riverkeeper.
She calls the river, which does not have an exclusive group responsible for its health, a “jurisdictional conundrum.”
Wilson points to the fact that Ottawa and Gatineau do not follow the same standards for wastewater management, despite the fact that both municipalities release storm and sewer water into the shared river.
As well, provincial governments are not required to collaborate when approving hydroelectric projects that affect the river as a whole.
Wilson says this “leads to projects being approved without proper site assessments, follow-up, [and] reporting and investigation.”
To this end, she says Ottawa Riverkeeper is working on plans for a roundtable forum in 2011.
The forum will bring together all stakeholders and decision makers involved in development on the river.
The forum aims to create a shared plan for the waterway that the different groups can work from.
“If municipalities along the river and the respective provinces don’t start talking to each other about a better way to recognize the shared resource, we’re just going to continue to see fragmentation,” says Wilson.
According to Ottawa Riverkeeper, projects like the one recently suggested by a Montreal think-tank to pump more water through the Ottawa River to the city, as well as the location of the new interprovincial bridge, are areas of concern.
“I think the Ottawa community hears a lot about sewage and the quality of our drinking water,” says Wilson, referring to heavily publicized issues like Ottawa’s “sewergate” fiasco.
“What we don’t talk a lot about is the development infrastructure and hydroelectric, and the correlation between those projects and overall river health.”
The WWF report says that dams and other river development can hurt water-side vegetation that rely on natural drying and flooding.
Fish populations, such as sturgeon, also find their spawning habitat disturbed and migration routes blocked by dams and river development.
Kanata South Coun. Peggy Feltmate, vice-chair of the city’s planning and environment committee, agrees that the Ottawa River presents a larger challenge for conservation than other waterways.
Waterways that are under one jurisdiction are able to be regulated by provincial legislation and initiatives.
“We don’t have that kind of mandate when it’s between the two provinces,” says Feltmate, “and so there isn’t the same kind of protection.”
She says even the push to have the river declared a heritage site is more difficult because of the need for communication between the two provinces.
“The City of Ottawa has promoted meetings with our counterparts in Gatineau, but it probably really should be requiring a much larger area … spanning the many municipalities that are along [the river], " says Feltmate.