Carleton professor wants to break the myths about swimming in the Rideau River

Mooney's Bay Beach on Tuesday, March 26 2024 (Leah Larocque/CTV News Ottawa)

On a hot and humid summer day in Ottawa, there’s nothing more appealing than a dip in a cold lake or river.

In recent years, there’s been a push to provide more options for residents looking to cool off. The National Capital Commission (NCC) has largely led on that effort, offering new swimming spots at the River House on the Ottawa River and at Dows Lake on the Rideau Canal.

Long branded as too dirty or polluted, the Rideau River hasn’t had the same amount of love, something that Banu Örmeci, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Carleton University, would like to see change.

In a conversation with Shane Hewitt, host of The Night Shift on Bell Media’s iHeartRadio talk network, Örmeci said there is a lot of misconceptions about the river that has prevented new beaches and swimming holes from opening along the 146-kilometre waterway.

“Climate change is real. Like look at Ottawa, it is so hot,” she said. “We need more opportunities, recreational opportunities for cooling, for swimming.”

Örmeci, who lives near the river, says she began working with community members and other experts to test the water in five different spots areas after seeing a need for more frequent and improved monitoring.

Tests are being conducted once a week in Manotick, Brewer Park, Windsor Park, Brantwood Park and Springhurst Park all on a volunteer basis.

“Our test results for the last five weeks and our sampling from five major parks on the Rideau River shows that the water quality is excellent, and it is safe for swimming and other recreational activities,” she said.

“Everything looks great, not just good, but it looks great. Typically, we’re measuring so far around 50 to 60 E. coli per 100 mL water samples. Some locations have a little bit higher. Our Ontario standards is 200 mL E. coli.”

Örmeci says in the 1960s and 1970s, industrial and wastewater discharges in the river were more common, leading to a negative perception of the water quality despite improvements from the city in filtering out pollutants.

A misconception she says remains equally prevalent is that river will see higher rates of sewage discharge after every large rainstorm.

“The perception is after every rain event there is a wastewater discharge to the river, which is absolutely not true,” she said.

“In most cities, it is quite rare these days to have wastewater discharges but we need to do better. We also need to continue investing in wastewater infrastructure which is typically neglected so that we can protect our surface waters.”

The City of Ottawa operates one supervised beach on the Rideau River at Mooney’s Bay. Last summer, the beach was closed for 22 days due to high E. coli counts and heavy rainfall.

Örmeci says the water quality shows more supervised beaches could open, adding that more data and information is key in convincing people the water is safe.

“My hope is that the city will start doing these additional measurements at different sites and maybe open some of these sites as supervised public beaches. We had beaches on the Rideau River in the past. They were closed due to pollution and our test results show that they can be open,” she said.

Before the swimming season began, Ottawa Public Health (OPH) said it would switch from daily to weekly E. coli testing at the city’s four supervised beaches, including Mooney’s Bay. The Ottawa Riverkeeper has objected to the change.

OPH has said that while swimming in local bodies of water is generally safe, beach-goers should take precautions, including by washing hands and showering immediately after taking a dip.

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