Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
Mooney's Bay beach has been closed as the city investigates a potentially harmful blue-green algae bloom on the water. Blue-green algae are a type of bacteria called cyanobacteria that can form large blooms on water, said Emily Morrison, program manager of the healthy environments team at Ottawa Public Health (OPH).
Here are five things we suggest residents living in flood zones should keep in mind while we all wait and see what happens next on the Ottawa River, 1. If flood waters have reached the level of your well head, or covered it, do not drink water from that well until the well water has been tested and you can’t test the water until the river has receded a significant amount more. 2. Ottawa Public Health has outlined clear steps that need to be taken before well water is safe again for drinking.
Ottawa Public Health announced Tuesday that swimming was still not recommended at the city’s four public beaches due to rainfall. Water conditions frequently decline after major storm activities, as occurred over the weekend. Water samples collected at the beaches continue to show elevated levels of E. coli bacteria. The counts remain Britannia Beach samples continued to be highest, while Mooney’s Bay, Petrie Island East Bay and Petrie Island River beaches, remained above recommended levels. Westboro Beach is closed for the year for renovation work.
Take a dip at Mooney’s Bay or the Petrie Island River Beaches Tuesday but Ottawa Public Health says that swimming is “not recommended” at Petrie Island East Bay and Britannia. Water samples are collected daily from City of Ottawa supervised beaches between mid-June and the end of August and tested for E. coli bacteria. When tests find high levels of E. coli, it’s more likely that other disease-causing organisms are in the water, too, the health unit said.Those organisms can cause skin, ear, throat or gastrointestinal illnesses.
Ottawa swimmers have faced the summer buzzkill of E. coli bacteria before, but this time human sewage isn't the culprit. Blame it on the goose poop. The City of Ottawa thought it had solved the bacteria problem at its worst hit beaches when it built a sewage storage tunnel to prevent sewage from overflowing and contaminating the Ottawa River.
