ACTION ALERT!
Every year, the City of Ottawa dumps hundreds
of millions of litres of untreated sewage directly into the Ottawa River. Now
you have an opportunity to help stop this travesty once and for all. The
province and the City of Ottawa have developed a plan, and the province and the
city have both agreed to put up their fair share of the money. All we need is
federal funding in the upcoming 2012 federal budget.
The city has developed the Ottawa River Action Plan to
address this issue and the plan is already delivering results. In June, the city
announced that recent infrastructure upgrades have cut the untreated sewage
going into the river by more than half compared to measurements of four years
ago. However, in 2011, the city still discharged 417-million litres of combined
sewage and rainwater into the river—that is the equivalent of almost 166
Olympic-sized swimming pools full of sewage!
City council would like to move forward with
the next phase of the Ottawa River Action Plan—the construction of major
combined sewage overflow (CSO) storage facilities. CSO storage facilities will
lower the amount of contaminants released to the Ottawa River, improving the
water quality and possibly reducing the number of beach closures.
According to Ottawa Riverkeeper Meredith Brown, who has
endorsed this letter-writing campaign, it is imperative that the city moves
ahead with the Ottawa River Action Plan, with or without federal
support.
“But,” says Brown, “the Ottawa River is a key feature of
the National Capital Region. The federal government should be doing everything
it can to stop the dumping of untreated sewage in the river that runs through
the nation’s capital.”
The province has
indicated its willingness to contribute one-third of the cost, but the federal
government has not yet made a similar commitment. We want to urge the federal
government to commit to its third of the funding in the federal 2012 Budget.
This is why we set-up an on-line letter writing campaign and we are asking you to
go the website and write to your local Member of Parliament today:
Please send a quick letter now to all Ottawa area MPs
urging them to ensure that funding for the Ottawa River Action Plan is included
in the federal 2012 Budget.
The health of our rivers depends on you
demanding action from our elected officials today.
For more information, contact us at:
And the recent Ecology Ottawa update here:
Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Ecology Ottawa
President:
