Ottawa Public Health defends decision to reduce water testing at beaches
Testing was daily for decades, now it will be once a week
Nkele Martin · CBC News
Posted: Jun 12, 2025 9:09 AM EDT | Last Updated: 24 minutes ago
Ottawa Public Health is defending its decision to reduce its testing of the city's beach water, amid criticism that doing so makes swimming riskier.
Until this swimming season, OPH has tested beach water quality daily but announced last month it would reduce testing to once a week starting June 21 to align with provincial standards, following a review of its beach water monitoring program.
According to Matthew Ruf, the Safe Food and Water Program manager with OPH, the shift will allow swimmers to pay attention to other factors when determining if it's safe to take a dip.
"We want people to broaden that horizon and think about those things that we can prove that are well known in science, and impact water quality," said Ruf.
Being aware of recent heavy rainfall, dead fish, algae and cloudy waters are all better indicators of water safety, he said.
Daily testing can offer misleading information, he said, because it takes at least a day for results to come back and bacteria levels in water can change within that time period.
"To have people focus in on a water result that's 24 hours old isn't real time information," said Ruf.
But Ottawa's Riverkeeper, Laura Reinsborough, said she's "deeply disappointed" by the change.
She said daily testing was the "gold standard" in the province and called the move by OPH "a huge step backwards" because it could put Ottawan's at risk of exposure to E.coli and other bacteria.
<more>
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ot...educe-water-testing-at-beaches-1.7558985
Threaded Mode