Gatineau beach water quality testing under scrutiny

A local river-watching group says its concerned about how often the water is tested at Gatineaus city beaches.

While water is tested daily at Ottawas five city beaches, Gatineaus three city beaches Parc des Cdres, Parc du Lac-Beauchamp and Parc Moussette are tested every two weeks.

Ottawa Riverkeeper volunteerSheila Jonessaid shes been volunteering to test water quality inGatineaufor 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 theGatineauside, she said.

OttawaRiverkeeperis 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 its something that becomes like a sleeping dog. It just gets ignored."

More tests than province requires, city says

Meanwhile, the Ottawa Riverkeeper says theyre looking for volunteers to help them test Gatineaus three city beaches more often.

If there have been strong rains, testing is delayed for 24 hours. When a test comes back positive for elevated E.colilevels, a second test is carried out to ensure accuracy,they say on their website.

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 provinces 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 waterwe do eight to 10 tests on top of what the government does, said city spokesperson Alain dEntremont.

We do more than what the regulation actually says."

DEntremont said the city will test their beaches more often if theyve yielded poor results in the past.