Gatineau beach water quality testing under scrutiny
Ottawa Riverkeeper wants 3 city beaches tested more often than every 2 weeks
A local river-watching group says it’s concerned about how often the water is tested at Gatineau’s city beaches.
While water is tested daily at Ottawa’s five city beaches, Gatineau’s three city beaches — Parc des Cèdres, Parc du Lac-Beauchamp and Parc Moussette — are tested every two weeks.
Ottawa Riverkeeper volunteer Sheila Jones said she’s been volunteering to test water quality in Gatineau for two years, currently taking samples “every few days.”
“It concerns us that there doesn't seem to be the same sense of importance and urgency attached to it on the Gatineau side,” she said.
Ottawa Riverkeeper is an independent organization that tests water levels on the Ottawa River and posts the results for the public.
"If an area doesn't get any attention from the citizens it’s something that becomes like a sleeping dog. It just gets ignored."
More tests than province requires, city says
Meanwhile, the Ottawa Riverkeeper says they’re looking for volunteers to help them test Gatineau’s three city beaches more often.
“At this point, if the test is once again positive, the province contacts the municipal beaches and orders them closed until the municipality is able to prove that the water has returned to normal levels. The municipality must use their own funds to either test the water themselves or hire someone to do it. Otherwise they must wait two weeks for the province’s next test.”
City officials in Gatineau said Thursday those biweekly tests are more than what the province requires, as they check municipal beaches three to five times a year.
"Although it is not our legal responsibility to test the water…we do eight to 10 tests on top of what the government does,” said city spokesperson Alain d’Entremont.
“We do more than what the regulation actually says."
D’Entremont said the city will test their beaches more often if they’ve yielded poor results in the past.