There have been some dramatic improvements to the condition of certain waters — but some parts still need work.
Our relationship with the rivers and lakes that surround Montreal island are much like the water systems themselves: moving swiftly in some areas, a little static in others, but constantly evolving.
Similarly, according to Dr. Catherine Mulligan, Concordia professor in the department of building, civil and environmental engineering, there have been some dramatic improvements to the condition of certain waters — but some parts still need work.
“It’s amazing how much the water has improved over the years,” Mulligan said. “When I grew up in Lachine next to Lake St. Louis, it smelled so bad.”
Now, that’s not the case. Still, while Mulligan acknowledges that the quality of our water is exceedingly good, it’s what’s underneath that concerns her. There’s the problem of contaminated sediments, which are proving to be a fairly resistant obstacle.
Sediments are solid materials left over from erosion, like rock fragments. They settle in water and travel with the stream. They absorb contaminants that come from ships, effluents from waste-water treatment plants, or agricultural fertilizer run off into connected streams. Most significantly, sediments can hold those contaminants for a very long time.
As director of the Concordia Institute for Water Energy and Sustainable Systems (CIWESS), Mulligan and her team are developing a filtration system that would reduce the amount of phosphorus going into the water, which enhances blue-green algae growth. The next step would be to adapt the filtration system so that it could remove contaminated sediments.
“It would be a friendlier approach to the treatment of sediments,” Mulligan explained. “We’ve experimented in harbour areas to see if we can do things with the sediments instead of dredging.”
In general, CIWESS is researching sustainable uses for our waters’ less desirable substances. For example, producing energy from the waste water.
“Waste water can be treated using anaerobic bacteria, which don’t need oxygen,” Mulligan said. “Some of those can produce methane, so we’re looking at ways of optimizing them.”
CIWESS is also working with biological surfactants — agents found in many detergents — to create a more environmentally friendly treatment that would disperse oil spills and help them biodegrade. It could be used on contaminated soil as well.
A bigger picture
What’s going on in our water often tells us a lot about what’s going on somewhere else. The rivers and lakes surrounding Montreal are part of a network so, for example, the Jean-R. Marcotte waste-water treatment plant on the eastern tip of the island will have a local impact, but it may also get as far as Trois-Rivières.
For Dr. Pascale Biron, hydro-geomorphologist and Concordia professor in the department of geography, planning and environment, looking to smaller streams paints a clearer picture about what’s going on in the larger bodies of water.
“I use the example of the Gulf of Mexico,” she said. “You can look at the mouth, which is the Gulf, or go up to the agricultural streams of the Mississippi River, which has thousands of kilometres of smaller channels. They may not look like they could have such a huge impact on the Gulf, but when you combine these small individual channels, they do.”
The same applies to the St. Lawrence. Some of its tributaries, or connected systems, are the St. François, the Yamaska, and the Richelieu. These cut through the South Shore’s farmlands, where soil contaminants leak into the watershed before draining into the St. Lawrence.
Biron and her colleagues are working on what they call “espace de liberté,” — or “freedom space for rivers” — which puts forth ideas on how to manage water conservation in the context of climate change. Among other things, Biron would like municipalities to put a greater amount of space between human habitats and rivers.
“It’s normal that rivers aren’t static,” she said. “You shouldn’t build roads or houses next to rivers. If we all moved farther away from them, it would be healthier — and we would spend less money on emergencies like flooding and erosion.”
Biron thinks it’s a question of working with nature rather than against it. Rivers migrate laterally, and they do that everywhere, causing erosion as they flow. As such, riverside properties will always be at risk.
“Even our neighbours in Ontario understand that rivers need space,” she said. “These smaller rivers flowing into our system would be better off if we accepted that there is a space that belongs to the river. If we prevent future development in those areas, it’ll be the way to go.”
But so long as riverside homes account for higher property taxes — funds any municipality relies on — the idea will be a hard sell.
“Perhaps we should revisit how our funding is sourced for municipalities,” Biron suggested.
A change in perspective
That said, few things make people care about waterways quite like putting them in close contact with even a small amount of it. In Montreal, there are those who live with a view of the water, and those who have their backs to it.
Central city dwellers know that they’re surrounded by water, but they often don’t have much of a relationship with it. Unlike cities like Paris, London, Berlin, and Prague, there’s no body of water cutting through Montreal’s urban core. The Lachine Canal is an offshoot of the St. Lawrence, but it’s still largely at the edge of the island, and as a public space, it doesn’t yet compare to the Seine or the Thames.
Creating a more interactive, inner-city basin wouldn’t just be pleasant; it might also instil in people a sense of pride toward the larger blue spaces outlying the island.
“It’s been shown that developing recreational activities around smaller rivers makes people feel proud, but also concerned about what’s going on,” Biron said. “Suddenly people realize: ‘It’s my river,’ and it makes them willing to accept public investments to improve conditions.”
Consider the urban beach at the Clock Tower in the Old Port. The space successfully creates a rapport with the river, but stops just short of contact. If anything, it forces Montrealers to confront the reality of water pollution. Since the beach is so well designed, it’s only a matter of time before people decide they want to dip their toes in clean, safe water.
Fishing in and around Montreal
- The Old Port sets up an Ice Fishing Village from January to March.
- According to Dr. Dylan Fraser, Concordia professor in the department of biology, Montreal and southern Quebec are a species-rich area for freshwater fish, with as many as 80 to 90 species found in and around Montreal.
- The fish available around Montreal tend to be warm-water species, like yellow perch, walleye, northern pike, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, muskellunge, and lake sturgeon.
- Fraser says the most popular fishing spots around Montreal are among the islands near Laval, in the Dorval and Lachine areas, in the Lachine Rapids, in Lac des Deux-Montagnes to the west, and in Lac St-Pierre, going toward Trois-Rivières.
- Catch-and-release fishing is most common around Montreal.
- People should not consume what they fish around Montreal before consulting Forêt, Faune et Parcs Québec and municipal guidelines for contaminant levels in fish, as well as any parasites that might be present. Guidelines will vary frequently.
- According to the city’s latest report on the presence of fecal coliform in Montreal’s waters, some of the cleanest waters are at the Parc Nature Cap-St-Jacques, along Lachine’s riverside park, around Lac des Deux-Montagnes, the St. Lawrence stream along Montreal East, and the Rivière des Prairies stream along the Montreal North shoreline.
- The same report shows that the poorest water quality is along Pointe-aux-Trembles, where the eastern tip meets other small islands, and in the Old Port, where boats dock amid relatively still waters.
- Fraser said that shoreline development can have a negative impact on the habitat of juvenile fish. He also noted that climate change can cause flow variability, or a lower flow to the St. Lawrence, which also affects the stability of fish habitat.
- The Lachine Canal has gotten less polluted over time, in part due to fewer factories in the area, causing less industrial contamination.
This story was produced by Postmedia Works on behalf of Concordia University for commercial purposes. Postmedia’s editorial departments had no involvement in the creation of this content.