The crusade to clean up the Ottawa River is both monumental and complicated, given the size of the waterway and the number of jurisdictions it flows through. Can one person — a symbolic guardian known as the Riverkeeper — wield enough power to effect real change?
By Ron Corbett
Testing the waters: Though progress on tackling pollution has been slow, riverkeeper Meredith Brown is encouraged by the city’s decision to launch the Ottawa River Action Plan. Photography by Julie Oliver.
MEREDITH BROWN is standing before a wall map of the Ottawa River watershed, pointing to where the problems are. Where Ottawa’s sewage system breaks down after a heavy rainfall. Where — to put it indelicately — the shit hits the water. “Here … and here … and here.” Her fingers move across the large map hanging in the office of the Ottawa Riverkeeper. “There are just as many entry points in Gatineau. After a bad storm, well, let’s just say it’s not good, what happens to the river.”
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