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The Ottawa Citizen

No evidence quality of air, water in Ottawa getting worse experts: Community Foundation report highlights troubling signs

Friday, October 06, 2006
Byline: Dave Rogers
Source: The Ottawa Citizen

Republished by permission of the Ottawa Citizen

For years Ottawa has been been envied as a clean and green city because of its fresh air, open spaces and winding bike paths.

But this week's Vital Signs report by the Community Foundation of Ottawa says there are troubling signs concerning air quality and problems with some public beaches.

The report shows smog levels in Ottawa appear to have increased in 2005. It says records between 2001 and 2005, show there were seven smog advisories in 2005 compared with one in 2004, three in 2003 and 2002 and six in 2001.

The charitable foundation's report also said high levels of E. coli in the water during 2005 forced beach closings for one day at Britannia Beach, 22 days at Westboro Beach, 19 days at Mooney's Bay and 17 days at Petrie Island, which also reported poor water quality in 2006.

The report was compiled from readily available data, said Barbara McInnes, the foundation's CEO.

"Although there's no original data," she said, "there were, nevertheless some surprises as we looked through the report."

Yet, while the report flags the air and river water quality as areas of concern, David Yap, an air pollution scientist with the Ontario Ministry of Environment, says Ottawa smog levels vary with the weather, but have remained about the same for years. He says in fact that the was Ontario measures smog has changed.

"If you see an increase in recent years in the number of smog advisories, it is partly due to the fact that we have introduced the particles into the picture to get a better assessment of smog."

Similarly Jean-Guy Albert, a spokesman for Ottawa's public health department, said there is little evidence that beach closings show water quality is deteriorating from year to year.

He said bacterial contamination at public beaches increases when heavy rainfall washes fecal matter from the shore into the water, contaminants are carried past beach by the current or too many animals or gulls are attracted by human food.

Mr. Albert said the quality of water has improved at Mooney's Bay and Britannia Beach since overhead anti-gull nets were installed several years ago.

"It is hard to say that water quality is getting worse," Mr. Albert said. "Five or six years ago the water quality at Britannia was not good, but it has improve considerably since the city installed gull wiring."