Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

Gatineau issues boil water advisory for two sectors

Ottawa Citizen

By Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen, August 19, 2017

Gatineau has issued boil a preventative water boil advisory for two sectors of the city bordering the Gatineau River. The two sectors each include a stretch of Rue Saint-Louis as well as streets nearby. Residents of these areas are advised to boil their water for a minute before consuming it. The advisory only includes water that is to be consumed or used to brush teeth.

Preventive advisories are issued when there is a pressure drop in the system as the result of planned work or an unexpected incident such as a water main rupture.

Still no answers on hospital clean-up

Metro Ottawa

By Ryan Tumilty, Ottawa Metro News, August 17, 2017

Government officials remained silent for a second day Thursday over increased costs to prepare the former Sir John Carling Building Site for a new Ottawa Hospital.

As Metro first reported Thursday, the costs to remove contaminated rubble for a new Ottawa Hospital have climbed from between $8.3 and $8.6 million to $12 million according to documents obtained through access to information.

On Thursday, Metro did not receive any reply to a host of questions about the clean-up originally directed to Public Services and Procurement Canada on Wednesday.

New bike repair stations going in across Ottawa

Metro Ottawa

By Alex Abdelwahab, Ottawa Metro News, August 17, 2017

As part of an initiative to improve the safey of Ottawa's road, the city has installed a number of new bike repair stations this week.

By the end of day Friday, 17 stations will be in place across the city, stretching from Stittsville to Cumberland and from the core, to as far south as Carp.

"Every day another station's gone in this week," Rob Wilkinson, coordinator of the Safer Roads Program said, who partnered on the project with Ottawa Public Health, Stantec and the EnviroCentre.

Coalition to host summit on transportation equity

OttawaCommunityNews.com

By Jennifer McIntosh, Ottawa Community News, August 18, 2017

A transportation equity summit could pave the way for an open dialogue with the city’s planning and design managers, said Trevor Haché, a spokesperson for the Healthy Transportation Coalition.

The summit — the second of its kind in the capital — was developed over the last year as a partnership between the coalition and EnviroCentre.

It will be an all-day event at city hall on Sept. 22, for a cost of $30, but Haché said thanks to a 2014 Ontario Trillium Foundation grant, organizers can offer a subsidy for a third of the spots.

“There’s the capacity for 150 people and, of that, 50 people’s registration fees will be subsidized,” Haché said.

Ottawa Riverkeeper calls out gaps in Chalk River nuclear site plan - Ottawa - CBC News

By CBC News Ottawa, August 17, 2017

A new nuclear waste disposal site along the Ottawa River could have devastating consequences, according a report released by Ottawa Riverkeeper.

The environmental watchdog says it pored over the environmental impact statement for the new disposal site in Chalk River, Ont.

After identifying what they call holes in the proposal, Ottawa Riverkeeper released a report on Thursday saying operating the facility as it is currently would cause significant damage to the river, if it continues.

City files re-zoning application for Ottawa Hospital Civic campus - Ottawa - CBC News

By CBC News Ottawa, August 18, 2017

The city has filed an application to re-zone five hectares of land on the Central Experimental Farm to be used for the future Civic campus of the Ottawa Hospital.

In a filing on Friday, the city said it wants to amend the Official Plan to re-designate the parcel of land from "agricultural research area" to "general urban area" and relinquish the green space from the farm.

(...)The city noted that "due to the city wide draw" for facilities like hospitals, the new Civic campus needs to be located near arterial roads and rapid transit stations. The future hospital site will be within 100 metres of the Trillium Line's Carling LRT station.

Wayward young osprey gets free ride back to nest courtesy Ottawa firefighters

Ottawa Citizen

By Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen, August 17, 2017

It took three attempts, a raw fish as bait and — crucially — kevlar gloves, but Ottawa firefighters helped a wayward, not-quite-fledged osprey home Thursday morning.

“I’d never been that close to an osprey before,” said Ottawa Fire public information officer Danielle Cardinal. “The talons were opening and closing, but apart from that it was surprisingly calm.

”It’s not the osprey nest’s first time in the spotlight. Last summer, landowner Dave Craig accidentally toppled the old and rotting osprey platform he had installed on his Rideau River property in the mid-1980s. One of two osprey chicks was killed in the mishap. Craig erected a new 16-metre platform last August and the osprey pair returned this spring as usual, raising two young.

Science of summer: Good news for baby loons

Ottawa Citizen

By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, August 18, 2017

This summer has been torture for loons, as a huge crop of biting flies drove adults off their nests across the northern U.S. states and southern Canada.

Parents abandoned their eggs in large numbers, often returning a week or two later to lay new eggs when the flies had gone. Many had babies that hatched very late in the season — in mid-July rather than the usual late May or June.

This got loon scientist Walter Piper wondering, and then writing: “Are late chicks doomed?”

StittsvilleCentral.ca

By Glen Gower, StittsvilleCentral, August 16, 2017

Nice to see this new bike repair station added to Village Square Park this week, along the Trans Canada Trail near Stittsville Main. It’s a good spot for it, with hundreds of cyclists passing by each week.(This would have come in handy a few weeks ago when my wife blew a bike tire on Abbott street just past the park!)

Safer Roads Ottawa (SRO) is setting these up at parks, libraries and other public areas around the city, but there aren’t too many yet in the suburbs. According to SRO: “Each self service bike repair station includes a work stand, an air pump and the following tools:

Princeton Avenue becomes first street to lower speed limit to 30 km/h - Ottawa - CBC News

By Elise Von Scheel, CBC News Ottawa, August 17, 2017

The City of Ottawa has approved a petition to lower the speed limit to 30 km/h on a residential street in Westboro.

Princeton Avenue will become the first Ottawa road to have a permanent cap of 30 km/h after city council approved a new road speed policy in April.

New signage will be installed by Sept. 15, according to the city.

Ottawa forest up and leaves: Expert says Britannia woods migrating across a lake

Ottawa Citizen

By Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen, August 16, 2017

The face of nature in our city has changed over the past 50 years, just as our streets and buildings have. But few changes in nature are as bizarre as the Britannia pine forest that crossed a lake.

Ottawa naturalist Dan Brunton has been visiting the forest around Mud Lake since the mid-1960s. It is an ecological hot spot, whose combination of different soils, along with the Ottawa River and the small, warm lake, sustain some 640 types of plants and more than 100 birds.

Brunton recently compared photos taken in 1968 to the forest today. What he found was a striking change that almost no one had noticed.

Wynne rejects idea of raising taxes to pay for infrastructure - Ottawa - CBC News

By Canadian Press, CBC News Ottawa, August 15, 2017

Ontario's Liberal government will not consider raising the provincial sales tax to pay for infrastructure projects in various municipalities, the premier said Tuesday.

Kathleen Wynne flatly rejected the proposal from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, which said its members are facing a pressing lack of funds to both maintain and improve bridges, roads and transit.