Equity In Every Drop: Series Four, Episode Six

Host Thomas Hynes speaks with Laura Reinsborough of Ottawa Riverkeeper about the Ottawa River’s swimmability and watershed protection. Reinsborough outlines her background in environmental studies, founding an urban fruit tree nonprofit in Toronto, and leading Food for All New Brunswick. She describes the Ottawa River as a 1,200+ km river with a vast drainage basin, the largest tributary to the St. Lawrence within the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence freshwater system, and notes it runs through unceded Anishnabe Algonquin territory across Ontario and Quebec. Ottawa Riverkeeper began in 2001 in response to untreated sewage from combined sewer overflows across a fragmented watershed of over 300 municipalities. She reports that the City of Ottawa’s overflows have been reduced by over 90% through transparency, monitoring (including real-time public maps and email notifications), and major infrastructure, including a sewage storage tunnel completed in 2021. Despite improved water quality, public perception lags; a 2020 survey found most believed the river unsafe. Reinsborough says people do swim (herself included), and urban beaches test safe about 85% of the time, with results aggregated on Swim Guide and advice to wait 24–48 hours after heavy rain. She discusses the Swimmable Cities Alliance and swimming as human “rewilding.” Additional priorities include road salt, 85+ fish species, American eel decline due to 50+ dams, PFAS and microplastics, and nuclear waste concerns. She also describes River School (launched 2023 at River House), reaching about 4,000 students with hands-on watershed, biodiversity, and water-quality education, including a birchbark canoe module.

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Thank you for listening, sharing, and supporting our mission to ensure everyone’s right to clean water. Together, we demand equity in every drop.

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Transcript – Series 4, Episode 6: Swimming Urban Rivers

Thomas Hynes: [00:00:00] My guest today is Laura Reinsborough. Laura earned a degree in environmental studies from York University in Toronto. After school, she created her own nonprofit in Toronto, focused on harvesting urban fruit trees for the community. She later led food for all New Brunswick, a robust food security network.

And since 2021, Laura has been serving as Ottawa River keeper. Laura, thank you so much for being here today.

It’s great to see you again. 

Laura Reinsborough: Thanks for having me. 

Thomas Hynes: we’re gonna talk about the swimability of the Ottawa River and some of the efforts that you and your organization have undertaken. But I want to just start at a baseline. Maybe you could tell me and our audience a little bit about the Ottawa River, a little bit about yourself, and a little bit about Ottawa Riverkeeper.

Laura Reinsborough: I would love to welcome you all into the Ottawa River Watershed. The Ottawa River is an incredible river. It stretches for over 1200 kilometers. It’s a long winding river and you know, the whole watershed so that broader region that [00:01:00] that all drains towards the Ottawa River is a vast area.

 In fact, it’s bigger than England, it’s bigger than Cuba, it’s bigger than Greece. And so just as one region within all of Canada it’s a huge, powerful river with a large drainage basin. And the Ottawa itself is nested within the world’s largest freshwater ecosystem that’s within the Great Lakes, St.

Lawrence. Uh, It’s actually the largest tributary into the St. Lawrence which flows then out to the Atlantic Ocean, and it’s just a really powerful river. So the flow of the Ottawa can be so powerful that it can be greater than all of the Great Lakes combined flowing into the St. Lawrence. So it’s just this incredible river that often gets overlooked. That’s sort of a big part of its story that it’s it’s quite neglected as a river. But Ottawa Riverkeeper, which has now existed for 25 years is trying to change that.

 I [00:02:00] also wanna situate us within Turtle Island. So, myself I’m not indigenous but the Ottawa River is within Anishnabe Algonquin territory which is unseeded territory, meaning that there was never any handover of land or any agreement about control of land in any treaties. And so, though Canada is a colonial power a country

developed on indigenous land that the lands and waters of the Ottawa River watershed are albe, Algonquin land and waters. So it’s dissected across two provinces, both Ontario and Quebec. But the river remains Algonquin territory, and so I’m joining you today also from Unseeded Unsurrendered Algonquin territory.

Thomas Hynes: Well, thank you for that. I appreciate that I think that’s important to mention. And and the way you described the river is, you know, we had spoken maybe three or four years ago and [00:03:00] the length of it and the connections and as you said that it serves sort of between the boundary between Quebec and Ontario. It runs through Montreal as well, correct.

Laura Reinsborough: It flows out towards Montreal. That’s right. Okay. So Montreal is an island in the St. Lawrence River, but it’s dramatically affected by what happens in the Ottawa River because so much of the water flowing past Montreal comes from the Ottawa. 

 

Thomas Hynes: And then I think the image that I have so clearly from when we spoke is that the river runs right by the capitol, right, the parliament.

Is that correct? 

Laura Reinsborough: Yeah, the Ottawa River is Canada’s capital river. The Parliament buildings are up on Parliament Hill overlooking the river, and so every member of Parliament making decisions at the federal level in Canada is drinking water sourced from the Ottawa River when they’re on the hill making those decisions.

We try to remind them of that regularly and that represents. You know, the fresh water sourced all across the country in their home ridings as well as here when they’re in the capitol. 

Thomas Hynes: [00:04:00] That’s pretty pretty vested interest in taking care of that river if you’ve got a glass of it in front of you at your desk.

Yeah.

Laura Reinsborough: I hope so. 

Thomas Hynes: Yeah. Yeah. I want to talk to you a little bit about the organization of Ottawa Riverkeeper and how you came about, how you came there. But I guess also how did Ottawa River Keeper start? ’cause it began before your time there. Correct. And it was a, I think, well, I think I know the answer, but I’ll let you say how it started and then how you came about to join it.

Laura Reinsborough: Yeah. Ottawa Riverkeeper started when a few concerned community members were seeing untreated sewage go directly into the river. And unfortunately this is a pretty common plight all around the world. We tend to, of course, build our communities around sources of water. And then, you know, at some point in our thinking,

we’ve come around to also be tainting those waters. And so that’s been the case with the Ottawa River is that there was untreated sewage going pretty regularly and often in large quantities [00:05:00] directly into the river and most of this was from combined sewer overflows. So when the infrastructure was set up in such a way that a large rainwater or a large rain event could overflow those systems and the untreated sewage would go directly into the river.

 But because the Ottawa River is sort of fragmented by different jurisdictions. In fact, there’s over 300 municipalities within the watershed, a strewn across Ontario and Quebec. And so it was really difficult to kind of point the finger or more appropriately hold to account the different entities or authorities that had some responsibility for this.

 And even though City of Ottawa was one of the major players with these sewer overflows, municipal governments get a lot of responsibilities downloaded onto them, and so they found it really tricky to replace or improve all that infrastructure without provincial or federal support. So Ottawa Riverkeeper was formed [00:06:00] by these concerned community members who said, enough is enough.

We can’t keep pointing the finger elsewhere. We need to solve this problem. We need to look at this directly and confront it. And they looked at a number of different models. In fact, one of the founders was a lawyer and he was quite keen on the Waterkeeper model. And so Ottawa Riverkeeper in 2001 was formed as a member of the Waterkeeper Alliance knowing that the model was developed in such a way that across all these different jurisdictions intersecting in the watershed, that this organization would be able to hold those decision makers to account.

So I’m really pleased to say now, in our 25th year. That those sewer overflows by the city of Ottawa have reduced by over 90%. 9 0 9

like the infrastructure has been improved.

There was a multimillion dollar investment to improve the main stem of the sewer system.

 But [00:07:00] beyond that, there’s also more transparency, there’s more accountability. In fact, there’s even real time monitoring. Even last year, they continue to make improvements. The city released a map of real time monitoring stations. So any community member can go and see if there has been any latest sewer overflows because they will still continue to happen to some degree, but we have been able to work with them slowly behind the scenes and ensure that, that number is dramatically reduced.

Thomas Hynes: That’s incredible. I mean, you know, every drop counts when it comes to confined sewer overflow. So anything you can remove or redirect or absorb naturally is such a gift to the community and to the river. But what I like that you mentioned too is that, you know, 90% is not a hundred percent.

90 percent’s exceptional and phenomenal and a ton of other descriptive words, but what do you still do with the remaining overflows and transparency and alerting and letting people know? And what kind of form does that take? Like how does that work?

Is that like an alert to the community or or [00:08:00] people just know it’s been a big rainstorm, I’m not gonna go on the river. 

Laura Reinsborough: Yeah, it’s a good question. And you know what I’m sharing that story is really just about the city of Ottawa. That’s the largest city in the watershed. But as the national Capital Region right across the river from Ottawa.

So Ottawa’s on the Ontario side, but across the river is gat to know on the Quebec side. And together they make the National Capital Region. And so we’re actually straddling across the river and with the second largest city in the watershed. And again, those are just two of over 300 municipalities in the watershed.

 So, you know, working closely with those two is one way in which we can make a large impact on reducing those sewer overflows. But the infrastructure on the GA know side is completely different based on the regulations and the decisions that were made. More from the GAT and Quebec governments.

 So there will still always be some potential for us who [00:09:00] are overflows. We wanna make sure that community members know what decisions they can make, how they can be informed about when they will recreate in the river for one main impact and also to make sure that we continue to work with all the other municipalities so that together we can be reducing this problem you know, across the whole watershed.

Thomas Hynes: Hard to get my head around that 90% number. How long did that take? I mean, how long did that take? I have other questions surrounding that, but what were the solutions and you said that there was some infrastructure things.

Were there any, like other ways that this was captured or redirected or how did that take shape and how long did it take? 

Laura Reinsborough: Yeah, so there were three main asks that we had. One was for more transparency. So previously, in fact, one of the large infractions in City of Ottawa history was a major combined zero overflow that was not reported on.

And the [00:10:00] requirement, the legal requirement at the time was only to report it to the Ministry of the environment, and, we wanted that to be met, that basic legal requirement, and we wanted the public to be able to know. And so, that transparency has been a major achievement that they now report

of course to the ministry, but they’re also, I mean, I get an email every single time that there’s an overflow and then within 24 hours they’re required to disclose the exact amount that was overflowed. They also have to do the monitoring. So not only monitoring after the fact, but we also demanded real time monitoring to make sure that there was an immediate awareness so that action could be taken and that would be

very complimentary to the first ask of transparency. And then the third piece was improving the infrastructure. That would be a low priority for most [00:11:00] mayors or councils. Yeah. That, you know, a major investment that requires provincial and federal cooperation is a long process in the making and it’s not gonna have payoff before the next election.

 And so this was likely going to be a long and slow process that they would be delaying. And so we were able to advocate to ensure that happened and was made a priority. And so we began in 2001 with that issue. And as we formed and grew and became an organization with some clout in community some capacity, some funding behind us to be able to have a strong voice on this issue.

We also all along we’re building up the case within the city, municipal government, and with elected officials. So those two processes were twinned and were able to come to a point where [00:12:00] in 2021, the completion of the new major infrastructure, that combined sewage shortage tunnel, that was completed in 20 21. So it took a long time. I’d say 20 years. Yeah. Yeah. But again, it needed to be that, that slower, quieter build because we did it with the cooperation of the city on a timeline, that would’ve been much faster than if if we’d not been there. 

Thomas Hynes: Yeah. And I recognize, and I guess maybe I’m almost commiserate with your point about it’s not a big thing, that a politician can slap their name on, you know, or say, Hey, this is like a stadium, or like a zoo or something that you know, you can see.

 But it’s arguably not a hard argument to make. Much more important than that. What has been the public response? I mean, that seems 90% is almost like flipping a light switch and deleting the problem entirely. I’m asking about the public response and I’m sort of leaning into being like, well, did people say, okay, cool, I’m gonna go paddle and swim and fish in this tomorrow, or did

this is a corny question to ask, but did people have a hard time dipping their toes in the water? I couldn’t find another way to [00:13:00] ask that. I mean, I meant it like literally and figuratively. What was the response and did people have a hard time believing that it was actually clean? 

Laura Reinsborough: Yeah, it’s a great question because uh, you can clean up the water, you can make that big change.

And in fact, I feel especially with a river system, the river can respond pretty quickly. When you’re able to reduce or eliminate those sewer overflows the river is you know that positive impact is felt immediately nearly immediately, and yet the public perception of whether the river is safe to swim in or not, is much harder to sway and to change.

It can become quite embedded within a whole generation or more. Because that’s not only your perception of it, it’s your behavior. It’s whether you have you know, family tradition of going to swim in the river or if you’re told for a long time, oh no, we don’t swim in there. That’s not safe to swim in.

 And there’s so many folks living within the national [00:14:00] capital region in Canada in particular, who still don’t believe that it’s safe to swim in the river. So in 2020 we did a survey to look at public perceptions of swimability for the river. And we were quite surprised to see that the majority felt that it was not safe to swim in the Ottawa River, despite this being a very swimmable river. In fact, in far as capital rivers go around the world, it’s one of the most swimmable. I mean, I don’t have a survey to point to on that, but my guess is it’s way up there. You know, it’s really hard to turn that perception around. I still am, you know, regularly giving talks about the river and celebrating how swimable it is and I will get looks of disgust.

But you know, we’ve got a great partner who is also helping to change the story. There’s a federal government agency called the National Capital Commission. And they’ve been opening up new swim sites in the watershed [00:15:00] and in the national capital region. And so, you know, downstream from the capital city, they’re opening up new swim sites, even within the Canal system, which has an , even stronger reputation of being unsafe to dip your toes in. That they’ve been opening up new swim sites and that’s been partnered with Ottawa Riverkeeper. We’ve been doing the testing to find out what the water quality is, well in advance of them choosing to open it up so they’re making evidence-based decisions on opening up new swim sites.

Even then, if you read the comments, which I know you’re not supposed to read the comments, you’re

Thomas Hynes: not supposed to 

Laura Reinsborough: And it’s pretty wild to see how people’s perceptions of how the river is dirty, the river’s unsafe to swim in, those are persisting and naturally they will for longer than than the river’s own ability to be safe and clean, to swim in. 

Thomas Hynes: I really appreciate a lot of that, and I, that answer, and I love the notion that the river can repair [00:16:00] itself and a lot of natural systems can repair itself the moment we just stop. Uh. I’ll say messing with it. I don’t wanna use the word that comes to mind, but like, just to keep this pg to keep the language good, but that we’re usually the problem and that we don’t need to fix it.

We just need to stop being the problem. And that these natural systems can often repair themselves. Not always, but often. I imagine that perception is very difficult. We deal with that here in New York and a lot of, you know, environmental repairs that we made, there’s a huge almost like national park size park opening in New York City.

They used to be the world’s largest dump. And people were like, there’s no way I’m gonna go there. And all of the animals have returned and all of the fauna and flora return, it’s just the people are saying I’m not, you know, it’s gonna take another generation for people to believe that it’s not still a smelly landfill.

But, going back to the Ottawa River and the possibility of swimming it so people swim in it. Do people swim in it now? People 

Laura Reinsborough: swim in it. 

Thomas Hynes: Do you swim 

Laura Reinsborough: in it? People swim in it. So I love swimming in the Ottawa River and that is still a bit of a controversial statement. Again, only because of public perception, not because [00:17:00] of the reality of water quality.

 So in general, across and most of the urban beaches about 85% of the time it’s safe to swim in the river. And that’s based on looking at, you know, e coli levels for recreational water quality. We do a lot of testing. We try to supplement some of the city testing that happens to be able to make that case that you know, the river is generally quite summable and we upload the results from all of the, all of the water quality testing for swim sites across the watershed. So again, it’s a big watershed that’s over 300 swim sites. But we upload all of those results to the swim guide. We kind of try to aggregate them across the whole watershed so that there’s like that one simple spot that people can go to find out the latest results.

Thomas Hynes: But, and you answered my question about how many swim sites are there?

There are 300, you said Over 300. Yeah, that’s right. 

Laura Reinsborough: So these 

Thomas Hynes: are either, and that’s a huge number. 

Laura Reinsborough: It’s across, you know, provincial parks in Ontario and one’s in [00:18:00] Quebec. There’s the National Capital Commission runs their own swim sites. The city different towns. So across all these different authorities, it’s hard to know where to look for the latest data.

And so we upload it all for these 300 swim sites to the Swim Guide. And of course, swim Guide is you know, developed by like Ontario Waterkeeper through Swim, drink, fish, and they’re used by groups like Waterkeepers all around the world. But we find it’s just a really handy tool so that folks

can go in that sort of one-stop shop to find the latest data. And so for the Ottawa River Watershed, in the urban beaches, which you’d think might be the most contaminated and have the most factors influencing the water quality, that about 85% of the time the tests are saying safe to swim in.

And so that flies in the face of a lot of the public perception. And really we can point back to the data to say, look, this is what the reality is in the water. It doesn’t mean it’s always safe to swim in. And so we [00:19:00] do advise that when there’s a heavy rainfall, wait that 24, 48 hours. Mm-hmm. Because there can still be those combined sewer overflows, but also just contamination from storm water.

 And we are looking at just to make sure that, you know, the latest data, we advocate strongly that those authorities should test more frequently than what’s legally required of them especially in urban sites because there are so many more factors that influence water quality. But by and large, the story is that this is a highly swimmable river, even in the urban areas, and that is definitely something for us to celebrate.

Thomas Hynes: It’s a huge accomplishment and it’s a double, it’s it strikes me as it’s like a two, it’s a two-part gift really. I mean, not only is Ottawa River keeper and partners worked to clean up the river, but you’re broadcasting it, you know, and you’re broadcasting it with the data saying, no, this is evidence-based.

This is fact-based. You can go today, don’t go tomorrow. These sites are good. It’s a real, it’s a real gift. Can you tell me a little bit about the Swimable [00:20:00] Cities Alliance? I know a little bit about it work here, but, 

Laura Reinsborough: yeah. So, well, I know Waterkeeper Alliance was one of the first signatories onto the Swimable Cities charter. And so that got my attention and with our a lot of our focus being on the swimability of the Ottawa River we signed on just about a year ago and it’s not that old, but there’s already there’s already a few hundred signatories onto the charter and it sort of enshrines the right to swim.

It looks at a number of different commitments, just really celebrating waterways around the world and how within urban environments it’s important to, to prioritize what swimability means for communities that live there, for the health of the ecosystem. And, those pressures are only increasing with climate change to make sure that folks have a place to go and cool off.

And I mean, in a way to be able to swim in a city is a bit of a [00:21:00] rewilding. So this comes about, this is a thought I’ve been kind of staying with for a little while because there’s a magazine called Rewilding and they were interviewing me about the Ottawa River, and they asked about, , planting native species or kind of rewilding the river in that way, you know, as a return of different fauna and flora.

And I had to reflect on that and I said. I think it’s actually the humans that are going through this process of rewilding with being able to swim in a river, swim in a body of water that they haven’t been able to before, that had previously been contaminated or polluted to the point where the broad public thinks, no, it’s not safe to swim in.

 And so the rewilding is, yes, there’s an ecosystem piece where it’s better for all of the aquatic life and the life that depends on that river to to have [00:22:00] fewer sewage going into the river. Absolutely. But the biggest rewilding is really more of the humans that are living there and being able to, , just physically enter, put our bodies into the river where previously we’d felt that was unsafe to do so.

So I think there’s definitely like a physical rewilding, but there’s an imaginative or psychological rewilding that’s happening with that too. And so it. That’s maybe the most important piece of this is that we are now seeing ourselves and actively acting like we are part of and connected to the river Anyways.

I mean, in our day-to-day lives here in the Ottawa , river Watershed we are drinking water sourced from this river. So we are, I mean, what 60% of our, we’re our own little water bodies walking around, living our day-to-day lives, but we feel disconnected, or the river feels like a backdrop rather than an integral part of our lives.

 And so when we actually going into swim [00:23:00] and putting our bodies in back into that water system, it sort of closes that loop. It reconnects and I think that’s maybe the most powerful piece of now being able in a critical mass, being able and willing and interested in swimming in the river.

Thomas Hynes: That’s such a great answer. And I was like, biting my lip because our producer’s always telling me not to crosstalk, but every time you said, I wanted to be like, yes. Yes. That’s so great. I loved that answer because

Laura Reinsborough: I don’t think I actually answered your question though. 

Thomas Hynes: Well, I loved what you said.

Let’s just, let’s leave it at that. I really love what you said, and I don’t even remember what the question was at this point. ’cause I love what you said and I just think that it’s the idea that, you know, cleaning a river is good for the mussels and it’s good for the eelgrass and things.

It’s like, but what about the most charismatic megafauna of all? What about, you know, you and me. What about the, What about the folks who and the psychological and emotional benefits of that. But I also think, I harp on this all the time that I think, it’s actually, , if you pull back like generationally, if you clean a river to make it [00:24:00] swimable and you give a little kid a chance to swim in that river and connect with nature, that child can grow up and more likely to vote in the right way.

Donate in the right way and work in the right way, and just be a better steward in all of those ways. I don’t mean to bring politics and donations into it but truly I do believe that it’s that connection of nature as a child. So if you have more people living in urban areas and you say, well, no, nature is this separate thing and you’re gonna get sick.

You can’t really interact with it, then why are you gonna care for it? It’s this thing outside of you. Mm-hmm. So it is a real, and I don’t mean to get like too esoteric or abstract, but I think that’s really very very impactful and powerful and awesome. You know, we talk a lot about, with our organizations, about being, you know, making rivers drinkable and making them fishable, and then also swimmable.

I think the importance of making a river drinkable and fishable to me seems pretty self-evident. There’s like a, you know, if you want to eat the fish, you wanna drink the water, like they need to be clean for your own health. But why is it [00:25:00] also important to make it swimmable? And I guess what I’m saying is does this access to the river where you can actually like access it and get in it is that helping your work?

And if so can you tell me how? 

Laura Reinsborough: I do believe fundamentally just in the right to swim, in the right to be able to to enjoy and connect with the water where you live. And it definitely helps us achieving our mission. one of the basic beliefs that we often return to is that people protect what they love.

 I think they love also what they understand and they know and they connect with and what’s familiar to them. And there’s so many people who have these fond memories, especially you know, there’s a strong cottage culture within the Ottawa River Watershed, and so often they’re going away from the urban environment to be able to access

a cleaner or a more pristine water system where they have fond memories and connected to family and all those you know, those great feelings. But that [00:26:00] it that, that’s a limit to who has access to a cottage. And so within Ottawa. In particular where we have our offices we’re actually based now at a boathouse that is on the river with some of the Nnc C swim docks.

And so right outside of our office, we can step out and go for a swim at lunch hour. Oh my gosh, in the summer months, go for a ski and soon they’re putting up a floating sauna. So all year round in the Canadian winter and spring, summer, fall, we’ll have options. But what it means is that is as a federal agency

that means they provide it free, they provide it for public access, they provide life jackets for those who are less familiar or comfortable swimming, there’s lifeguards. And so it’s, even though it’s a wild river and it is open water swimming, that it’s done in a very kind of caring way to ensure that right to swim which is

just a couple kilometers from downtown Ottawa. [00:27:00] And so, , that just opened up in 2023 when we were the first tenant to move in there. We have our science lab there as well. We have an education space that we also opened up to public. And so this has been a game changer for accessing the river.

 In fact, previous to that spot, opening up all downtown of Ottawa on the Ontario side there was a 27 kilometer stretch, including right across all of downtown where you could not access it to swim. And now this has opened up almost smack dab in the middle of that stretch with a new point of access.

 It is adjacent to the most affluent neighborhood in Ottawa. And so, we didn’t know just how, would this be attracting a wide diversity of community members? But it is, it really has been this amazing surprise of bringing so many people to the water’s edge and encouraging them in a safe way to be able to swim.[00:28:00] 

And so that’s where our office is, and we get to kind of mediate that relationship when people come to the water’s edge, when they come to swim or enjoy the view there that we can help deepen their connection to the river. And with our education space, we’re hoping to make sure that they all walk away having learned something more, not only about the river, but about what they can do to protect it.

Thomas Hynes: That’s amazing. I remember when we spoke in um, I guess it was 2022, the boathouse was a big topic of our conversation. You’re like, this place is gonna be fantastic. It’s right on the river. And I’m so excited that is, that you guys have gotten in there and what you’ve done with it is, it sounds so remarkable and all of the work has been sounds so remarkable.

And just, yeah, I mean, I’m just thinking about going from, 90% CSO take down and then, and doing the public relations work, not just the science work, but also the public relations work. And then it’s not putting your money where your mouth is, but you’re going in the river yourself. I don’t know what the the appropriate metaphor for that is, but , you’re taking it on yourself. And that’s so great.

[00:29:00] 

Thomas Hynes: So tell me a little bit more about your work at Ottawa Riverkeeper. 

Laura Reinsborough: Yeah, so with Ottawa Riverkeeper, there’s so many different issues. Of course, you know, water kind of becomes that vessel to, bring so many concerns all ending up , in the river. And so we kind of treat the Ottawa River like a report card for the whole watershed, what’s landing in the river.

We can understand that , to tell a much bigger story about generally how we’re stewarding this broad area. And so, we’re looking at some of the issues like we’ve talked about with untreated sewage. We’re looking at also road salt usage. That’s a major threat to aquatic systems within a cold climate using road salt for deicing.

 So that’s a major issue here in OT and ga. We’re also looking at, fish richness and there’s over 85 species of fish that live within the Ottawa River Watershed and one that’s of particular interest to us and some other waterkeepers [00:30:00] as well is the plight of the American eel because the Ottawa River is one of the fast flowing major rivers that eels like to migrate into.

 And yet the Ottawa River is one of the most highly regulated rivers in North America, over 50 major dams. And so the eels simply cannot even enter river, those who want to migrate here can’t anymore. And so they’re down to 1% of their population. They’ve been nearly extricated from the Ottawa River. So that’s a major issue.

And the eel is an incredibly culturally significant species, especially to the in Algonquin people. But we’re looking at major issues that go well beyond these borders as well. So we’ve started doing PFAS testing just last year. We’ve done a major freshwater study on uh, microplastics with community scientists.

 There’s a nuclear facility on the shore of the Ottawa River upstream from the National Capital [00:31:00] Region. So nuclear waste has been a major focus of ours since 2016. We’ve built a lot of expertise in that area when it’s hard for NGOs to be able to build up their technical capacity to speak on issues of nuclear waste and fresh water protection.

 So, you know, across so many different issues. We’re trying as our small team to be active on those fronts because there’s really nobody else doing this work. And so we need to fill this gap. We need to be that organization who can look at the specific needs of the Ottawa River, fill in the data gaps that that have been neglected for so many years, and even just taking existing data

harmonizing it across the two provinces that stretch this watershed and making sense of that anew. And so, , across these many different issues we wanna make sure that the Ottawa River is understood so that it can be protected. 

Thomas Hynes: And I think this really speaks to the unique role that Ottawa Riverkeeper and All River Keepers play is that you know, [00:32:00] this river and this catchment, or this watershed has 300 municipalities, two provinces. It’s like, who’s in charge?

Who’s speaking for the river? Well, you are, thank God. And it’s really, I mean, and all of this. You know, PFAS and microplastics and then nuclear waste. And also just, I know that nuclear is so water intensive when there is no, without, beyond the waste. I mean, just the intakes and things.

It’s so intensive.

 I also just wanna ask you quickly about the Ottawa River School, or is it River school or is it Ottawa River School and , what function that plays for your organization and your community? 

Laura Reinsborough: Yeah, so in 2023 we launched River School and this had been a dream for a long time to be able to have a more formal program through which we can educate that next generation of water leaders.

 We were getting requests to share what we know about the river with different classes, students teachers. And we were meeting those needs on an ad hoc basis. It was a bit draining for us to be making up new curriculum connections each time. But we saw huge potential and [00:33:00] interest. So when we moved into River House in 2023 with that was an a platform through which we could launch River School.

Finally, a place where we could bring students to the river and launch a more formal education program. And so in our first year, we actually quadrupled the number of students that we could reach. We reached about 4,000 students welcoming them to our classroom on the river. There it’s hands-on education, so in our water quality module, they’re directly taking samples

from the river, analyzing it in our lab and discussing the results together. We also have modules on biodiversity, on what is a watershed and really just trying to get some of those basic understandings of, whose waters are these students? Where are they growing up? What are the waters that they are connected with?

 And always trying to have that experiential education focus to it. So we launched in 2023. The program continues to grow and develop. We were also able to separately do a program with building a birchbark canoe in our [00:34:00] space, kind of using it like a river studio as we were first getting established there.

With an Algonquin knowledge holder from Kit Inve. And now the canoe is becoming its own module within River School because the canoe teaches about connections between forest and water and river. It’s built entirely out of materials from the forest and yet it helps transport us on the water.

And to take care of the canoe, you actually need to be able to put it in the water that actually helps keep it, the wood supple over the years. And that’s so symbolic about the relationship and that interrelatedness between forest and land and people. And so, you know, river School continues to grow and develop, but it’s a deep part of our theory of change.

You know, we do science. We need to understand the river’s needs. We do advocacy because those needs need to be heard immediately by decision makers making decisions now for the river. [00:35:00] And we do education because the public and the youth need to understand what’s at stake for them, how they’re connected and what they can do so that when they then become those decision makers

it’s already an integral part of the way that they think and behave. And so that’s kind of our long game. We’re playing the long game that is with River School.

Thomas Hynes: But it all kind of, that is such an important long game ties 

Laura Reinsborough: together. 

Thomas Hynes: Yeah. I mean, it’s so important. I mean, I mean, truly, like all of these things are so important, but I mean, I, I always harp on man, but if you just get these, you know, get these kids interested and get these kids invested and get these kids in love with the river.

They’re gonna carry that their whole lives. And that’s such a gift that you’re giving back to the community. Laura, I really appreciate your time this morning. I know you’ve got a lot to do today and tomorrow and every day. And on behalf of our listeners and on behalf of people who love water and nature all over the world thank you for all you do, and thank you for being here today.

It was really great to see you again. 

Laura Reinsborough: Oh, thanks so much for having me. It’s been a [00:36:00] pleasure.