Quote:
Originally Posted by urbanforest
I think the difference comes down to colour. The Great Lakes and the St Lawrence River are blue hued, if not nearly clear (the Lakes less so, the St Lawrence is quite clear).
Whereas the Ottawa River LOOKS dirty. Even though it’s likely attributable to tannins, brown water is still considered dirty and unappealing to many people unfortunately.
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Completely agree. I'd add though that I think that's mainly a North American opinion. In Europe you will see people swimming in all kinds of stagnant, brown-ish ponds, lagoons, etc. and no one seems to fuss about it.
Although I think what's a bigger factor than the colour is the shocking amount of unchallenged misinformation shared online and via word of mouth about things like sewage. A significant number of people firmly believe that raw untreated sewage is flowing directly into the river at all times of the day, when in reality this only occurs during overflow events (which are even less common now with the CSST project complete).
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