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Des gens se baignent au Vieux-Port de Montréal

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Montreal, June 30, 2023 – Eighty people jumped into the river at the Old Port of Montreal for the traditional Grand Splash, an initiative of the Fondation Rivières. The objective: to demand a port bath at the Jacques-Cartier wharf, where the water is almost always clean and access is safe, just like at the Port of Quebec. 

Julie Roy, president of the Commission on Water, the Environment, Sustainable Development and Large Parks, and Vicki Grondin, Ville-Marie borough councilor and member of the Water Commission were present to demonstrate the the City's interest in opening access to water. Both jumped into the water. 

“The City continues to support the idea of a harbor bath and we have the support of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, Tourisme Montréal and Earth Day. A port bath can become a flagship project for Montreal,” declares André Bélanger, general director of Fondation Rivières. 

Members of the Société des Gens de Baignade (SGB) were also present. “The port bath in the Louise Basin brings benefits for the population, but also significant economic benefits for the City of Quebec. We wish you the same thing in Montreal,” said Louis H. Campagna, of the SGB. 

Mayor Valérie Plante committed to inaugurating a port bath during the election period, an action reiterated in the Nature and Sports Plan of the City of Montreal in 2021.

Huge swimming potential in the Old Port

The water in the Jacques-Cartier basin is of excellent quality in dry weather, that is to say a period without rain at least 48 hours before sampling. According to data from the Aquatic Environments Monitoring Network (RSMA) of the City of Montreal, it met swimming standards (maximum of 200 CFU/100mL) in more than 96 % samples during the summer period, from 2003 to 2022. After an episode of heavy rain, it would be enough to close access to the swimming area over a period of 24 to 72 hours, as at Verdun beach – the duration of closure varying depending on the importance of overflows from the sewer networks . 

Remember that a port bath project at the end of the Quai de l'Horloge was abandoned in the summer of 2020. Installed in the St. Lawrence River, outside the protected zone of the Old Port, this bath project port was exposed to a strong current, unlike the Jacques-Cartier basin. 

Quality water in nearly 60 locations around the island

The Foundation noted, earlier this week, 57 sites accessible from the shores of the island of Montreal where the water is of good quality for swimming in dry weather and 106 for the practice of water activities involving indirect contact with water (kayak, paddle board, etc.). 

The City of Montreal is only planning three projects to open swimming areas in the river: at the future Lachine riverside park, at the Promenade Bellerive park and at the Plage de l'Est (compromised by the potential presence of the copper redhorse). , a species threatened with extinction). The City has everything it needs to inaugurate new accesses, especially in the south-central and east, where the heat islands are located. The City has only three free public access points to natural bodies of water, all in the west of the island. 

The start of a series of Grand Splash

Three other events of Grand Splash will take place in Montérégie between June 30 and July 8 in order to challenge elected officials and decision-makers about the importance of providing public access to water and ensuring water quality: Chambly, Saint-Joseph-de-Sorel and Sainte-Martine. 

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Source
Picture of Sophie Lachance

Sophie Lachance

Communications and Mobilization Manager
Fondation Rivières
514-272-2666, ext. 307

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