At the recent chapter anniversary festival for the Kitchissippi-Ottawa Valley Council of Canadians group,
Larissa Holman stood in for the Ottawa Riverkeeper.
She’s that organization’s Director of Science and Policy and spoke of the challenges facing the 1200 kilometre long river system.
One of the major obstacles to the Ottawa’s purity is encountered at about the half-way point in its flow.
The Ottawa Riverkeeper relies heavily on a volunteer cadre of “citizen-scientists”, who, amongst other tasks monitor the flows for phosphorous on a daily basis, according to volunteer Angie McKinnon.
McKinnon’s group, the Kitchissippi Ottawa Valley Chapter of the Council of Canadians says that’s just one item on an extensive checklist.
The Ottawa Riverkeeper’s report card looks at 14 separate items, and currently gives the system a C-pluse grade, according to Larissa Holman.
Potential news threats to the Ottawa River’s endangered species come from the Prime Ministerial push to advance certain economic development projects as a National Priority.
We’ll look at that, and other aspects incpart two of our feature.
By Rick Stow
