Meredith Brown (left) and Alexandra Cousteau test the water quality of the Ottawa River .
A pilot project raising awareness about the Ottawa River’s water quality culminated this month in the filming of three mini-documentaries about the importance of maintaining the river.
The Riverwatch water quality monitoring initiative was put on by the Ottawa Riverkeeper, a grassroots charity that aims to protect, promote and improve the health of the Ottawa River. The Riverkeeper trained volunteers to take water samples to monitor the river’s water quality.
The documentaries will focus on water quality, the impact of dams on the river and governance. They will highlight the lack of co-operation between various jurisdictions along the river to have one system overseeing the river’s maintenance.
Alexandra Cousteau, granddaughter of famed French explorer Jacques Cousteau and founder of Blue Legacy International, a not-for-profit organization developing new media projects about water issues, led a team in filming the documentaries, which will be distributed online later this year.
“I know for most Canadians fishing, drinking, swimming, being out on the water is really an important part of their life,” says Cousteau. “Taking care of the water we have is an incredibly important part of our stewardship responsibilities.”
Ottawa Riverkeeper Meredith Brown agrees. “I’ve been the Riverkeeper for eight years. I’ll still see untreated sewage floating by and to me that’s unacceptable.”
While filming for the documentaries has only taken place this month, from May to September, the Riverkeeper – along with 40 "citizen-scientists" – has been busily testing and analyzing samples from the Ottawa River to give citizens timely information about water quality.
Volunteer citizen-scientists are trained and given a water sampling kit, allowing them to analyze their samples and immediately put them online.
The sampling kits measure oxygen levels, the acidity of the water, and water clarity.
“Citizen-scientist testing allows us to give information to communities quickly,” says Alex Brett, a spokesperson for the Ottawa Riverkeeper, adding that they are setting up a website where volunteers can put up their analyses for anybody to access. “That in turn engages people with the river.”
The Riverwatch project also arranged to have some samples taken to a lab to check for E. coli says Brown. That was welcome news to Paul Murdoch, who took samples at the Ottawa Rowing Club as part of the project.
“We are on the water a lot,” says Murdoch, “and we are fairly concerned with the water quality.” Murdoch says he hopes the project will continue next year.
“What we want ultimately,” says Brett, “is all parties to come to the table. We have two provinces, over 200 municipalities, first nations and the federal government all with jurisdiction on pieces of the river and nobody’s talking to anybody else.”
Brown notes that the City of Ottawa has taken a leadership role in reducing the volume of untreated sewage going into the river thanks to the Ottawa River Action Plan. The plan is meant to reduce sewage spilling into the Ottawa River during heavy rainstorms.