Sewage spills in Ottawa River deter beach visitors

Ottawa's controversial Petrie Island beach was one of four city beaches to reopen on the weekend, but few people turned up to swim.

That was partly due to cool weather, but somesaid that stories about the massive 2006 sewage spill, and the knowledge that raw sewage is still regularly dumped in the Ottawa River upstream from Petrie Island, weighed on their minds.

"I really think it's got to have some factor on it, that people want to go swimming, and it's just a little easier on the mind to swim in the west end where you know you're upstream from all the excitement," said Greg Cooper, who was there with his beach chair Sunday, but had no intention of entering the water.

The "excitement" was the disclosure last month that 1.2 billion litres of sewage had been accidentally released into the river in 2006,which finally explained why the Petrie Island beachhad beenclosed for 45 days that summer.

It was also reported recently that the city is legally allowed to let raw sewage overflow into the river during or after heavy rainfall, and it intentionally releases about four million litres of raw sewage into the river each year.

The knowledge of all this didn't stop everyone from swimming on the weekend.

"I think if the water was tested, and it was tested OK, I don't think it should be a problem," said Chantal Cyr, whose three children were playing in the river.

"They like to play in the sand, and jump in the water. [They] cover themselves in sand and then go and try and clean it off."

Cyr said she's heard the stories about Petrie Island,but she trusts the lifeguards who told her it was OK to swim.

Farther up the beach, Pascale Tourmel was in the water with her two young daughters. Like Cyr, Tourmel said she has faith in the water testing, and she doubts the low turnout can be blamed solely on the beach's bad press.

"I think it's more the weather," she said.