Ecology Ottawa

News Clippings

Engineering students devise ‘pop-up’ solutions to Bayshore traffic challenge

Ottawa Citizen

By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, March 19, 2016

Teams of University of Ottawa engineering students spent Saturday devising low-cost, portable and temporary “pop-up” crosswalks that could someday be used to help Bayshore residents safely cross a busy neighbourhood road.

Competing in a design competition organized by the campus chapter of Engineers Without Borders and Ottawa’s Healthy Transportation Coalition, the five groups were asked to create a pedestrian crossing that could be used on Woodridge Crescent near the Bayshore Transitway station.

Your letters for Saturday, March 19: From art to economics

Ottawa Citizen

By Craig Houle, Nick Brooks, Bruce F. Simpson and Henry F. Herald, Ottawa Citizen Letters to the Editor, March 19, 2016

Stormwater fee just another money-grab

Re: Stormwater fee would fund rural ditches, culverts, city says, March 11.

It was amusing to read city Treasurer’s Marian Simulik’s explanation and justification for a new tax (she calls it a fee) to fund rural drainage projects such as ditches and culverts. This begs the question: If the main services that rural residents receive from the city are snow-plowing and garbage pickup, what then do our taxes pay for if not for the necessary upgrading of roads, improvements to ditches and replacement of culverts in rural areas?

StittsvilleCentral.ca

By Stittsville Central, March 18, 2016

The City has added another public consultation session for proposed changes to water/sewer rates, and this one is nearby in Kanata. This one’s on Monday, April 4, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Kanata Recreation Complex, 100 Charlie Rogers Place (formerly Walter Baker Place), Hall A. That’s just off Terry Fox near Hazeldean. More info…Recommended reading: Kitchissippi councillor Jeff Leiper commissioned an independent study of different approaches that the City could take to change water and sewer fees. This is a complicated file and I don’t envy councillors as they try to find a more equitable way to charge for these services. You can read the study here…

Pilot project for community gardens on NCC lands underway

By Adam Kveton, Ottawa Community News, March 18, 2016

Interest in community gardens is growing says a local advocate group, and the NCC says it’s responding to the demand.

The NCC is currently working on a three-year pilot project with two groups to have one community garden in Ottawa and another in Gatineau.

Mississippi Mills residents on edge about chemical found in well water

By Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Sun, March 18, 2016

About 100 people who live near the National Fire Laboratory in Mississippi Mills met behind closed doors this week to discuss what to do next about a chemical found in their wells.

In December, 49 households near the facility between Almonte and Carleton Place received notice from the National Research Council that it was testing groundwater and wells for perfluoralkylated substances, or PFAS, as part of a “precautionary approach.”

Tunney’s Pasture bus ramp to close this weekend

Ottawa Citizen

By Matthew Pearson, Ottawa Citizen, March 18, 2016

The ramp connecting the Transitway at Tunney’s Pasture station with surface-level stops is set to close this weekend — the first step in preparing the station for its eventual transition to light rail.

Only two routes, 86 and 176, are affected by the change, which takes effect Mar. 20.

Instead of entering Tunney’s off Scott Street and looping down to the Transitway, eastbound buses will stop on Scott, just east of Holland Avenue, and then continue on Scott toward downtown.

Reevely: Let’s kill the Sparks Street mall

Ottawa Citizen

By David Reevely, Ottawa Citizen, March 18, 2016

Let’s give up on Sparks Street.

It’s a failure as a pedestrian mall, a failure as a shopping district, a failure as a roadway. The city’s planning a “revisioning” for it, in keeping with the full-on rethink of downtown brought on by the impending opening of the light-rail line. Perfect. Let’s revision it as a street.

We found the nerve to admit failure with the Rideau Street bus mall 20 years ago, when we stopped tinkering with that disaster, admitted we’d got it wrong, trashed the shelters we’d put up. Let’s reopen Sparks to traffic. Pave it. Put a two-way bike track on one side and parking on the other. Make the sidewalks as wide as we can get away with. But no big central patios, no ribfests or zip lines. Maybe close it for special events like Canada Day.

Mississippi Mills residents hoping for more answers after chemicals found in water - Ottawa - CBC News

By CBC News Ottawa, March 17, 2016

About 100 people crowded into the legion in Carleton Place, Ont., on Wednesday evening for an informal community meeting to discuss their concerns about contaminated drinking water near a federal research facility, and spent three hours coming up with a list of questions for the National Research Council, as well as municipal and federal officials.

The affected residents assigned each other tasks, plan to seek out and consult with some of their own experts, and are hoping for a face-to-face meeting with NRC officials, as well as Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan, and Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna.

Sparks Street cancels VIP parking program over concerns for pedestrian safety

Ottawa Citizen

By Don Butler, Ottawa Citizen, March 17, 2016

In response to safety concerns expressed over the presence of vehicles, the Sparks Street Mall Authority has abruptly cancelled a seasonal program that lets shoppers park on the pedestrian street.

Tony Kano, who chairs the board of the mall authority and Sparks Street BIA, decided to immediately shut down the VIP parking program Thursday after an email complaint from architect Greg Manley.

Toilets as trash cans: Wipes, dentures, Fraggles clogging Ottawa’s sewage plant

Ottawa Citizen

By Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen, March 17, 2016

A Fraggle Rock carrot car — a coveted goody from a 1980s McDonald’s Happy Meal — isn’t one of the three Ps that belong in Ottawa’s sewage plant. But there it is, on a table of other misfit toys plucked from the crud people have emptied down their drains.

“Ideally people would use their toilets for their famous three Ps,” Michel Chevalier said. “If it’s not pee, poo or paper, it doesn’t belong in your toilet, and of course whatever you flush I get at this end.”

Mississippi Mills residents warned of potential water contamination decades ago

CTV Ottawa News

By Joanne Schnurr, CTV News Ottawa, March 15, 2016

Some residents of Mississippi Mills, southwest of Ottawa, say they were worried about their water being contaminated decades ago. Now those worries have proven founded.

The National Research Council is testing well water from several homes around Ramsay Concession Road 8, after discovering trace amounts of a toxic chemical at the neighboring NRC's fire research lab. The fire research lab has been operating in Mississippi Mills for years. Some residents remember the plans to build it and the concerns they expressed about what the chemicals at the lab would do to their water. Jane and George Wilks have lived in the area for 40 years breeding dogs during most of those years. They are worried now, about their health and the health of their dogs.

Man charged in Gatineau bike path attack

CTV Ottawa News

By CTV News Ottawa, March 16, 2016

A 49-year-old Gatineau man is facing a number of charges in relation to a violent attack on a bike path in Gatineau that sent a 16-year-old girl to hospital with serious injuries.

Gatineau Police have charged Marc Bellfoy with offences including attempted murder, aggregated assault and assault with a weapon.