Water series: Foamy substance on Ottawa River?

A Brownsburg-Chatham resident contacted The Review late last month to discuss some white, foamy substance floating along the Ottawa River near his property.

According to resident Ken Draycott, there was a period of two or three days where the substance was in high volume, though he said "this has been going on for years."

As Meredith Brown of Ottawa Riverkeeper highlighted, "Typically, that is a sign of organic decomposition happening in the river, or an influx of nutrients in the river where potentially there's just some breakdown."

With the new septic tank bylaws being implemented across Quebec - and potentially coming soon in Ontario - Draycott's concern was the source of the potential effluent, if indeed it came from upstream dumping in the Ottawa River.

"It's fairly common to see [the foam] on the river," Brown noted, however.
"What people need to know is that there's constantly nutrient input or pollution input that comes from municipal wastewater treatment systems or the storm water drains, notably the major cities of Ottawa and Gatineau... and once you get to Hawkesbury, there's a lot of upstream."