Ottawa Riverkeeper Annual Public Meeting
Follow as I live-blog the annual public meeting of Ottawa Riverkeeper, taking place at the Canadian Museum of Nature, Tuesday Oct. 6, 2015, between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. Ottawa Riverkeeper is dedicated to protecting the health of the Ottawa River and it's tributaries.
-
-
The Riverkeeper program, which in 2001 became the third of its kind in Canada to be licensed by the international Waterkeeper Alliance, is driven by the goal of "swimmable, drinkable, fishable waters, now and in the future." To this end, they carry out a range of activities, including water quality testing, court challenges, research and outreach. For more information visitOttawa Riverkeeper - Clean. Healthy. Public. Your river. Your right.
Ottawa RiverkeeperClean. Healthy. Public. Your river. Your right. -
-
The proceedings are now underway. Waterkeeper Meredith Brown introduces musician and community activist Ian Tamblyn, who kicks off the evening with an anecdote about mating chipmunks and a folk song tribute to Black Spruce forests. Follows with a protest song dedicated to the beluga whales of the St. Lawrence river. "If there was chance for change / It would be right now."
-
Microbeads, untreated sewage, sediment and pipelines among the major issues on the Ottawa River, says Meredith Brown.by Rupert Nuttle via twitter 10/7/2015 12:23:42 AM -
We have begun and ended our day with @ottriverkeeper. That's Meredith Brown, ED chatting about Aqua… instagram.com/p/8g9mXUgLOr/
by WallSpaceOttawa via twitter 10/7/2015 12:26:47 AM -
Executive Director Meredith Brown's summary of the year's major issues and developments is followed by a poetry reading from Jean van Loon. Her poem "A Story of Sawdust" harks back to the 19th century lumber trade along the river, when the Chaudière Sawmill would dump untreated waste (mostly sawdust) into the Ottawa River. On one royal visit, van Loon recounts, Elizabeth II plunged her foot right through the apparently solid layer of sawdust into the river, thinking it was land. Even in the 1960s, nearly a century after the industry's demise, the sawmill waste was still 3 metres deep.
-
Wrapping up the evening here with a presentation by Roch Bérubé, the executive engineer of the the Ottawa River Regulation Secretariat. His talk was titled "Dams, Water Levels and Climate Change in the Ottawa River Watershed," and followed by an insightful Q&A session.
