A translation by Judith Turcotte
The reason that led me to write about the St. Lawrence River is the melancholy I felt when we lost access to the river because of the construction of the Seaway and the 132. I was born in Saint-Lambert a few hundred metres from the waterfront. I still remember my walks, Sunday mornings with my father, along the shoreline then lined with majestic elms. This melancholy did not surface immediately. At the time of the construction, I was a teenager with many other things on my mind. I only realized this loss later when I had a family. No walks with my children along the river banks and even less swimming.
Restoring river access to the population is no small task. The river bed is owned by the State, however, the lands bordering the shores are private properties. Nearly 90% of the river banks are privately held and are not accessible. In many municipalities, to make matters worse, the river banks are occupied by port facilities and other infrastructure.
A majority of the people seem to believe that a river access implies swimming. Our municipal politicians took advantage of this interpretation and promised us beaches where, according to them, it was possible to swim. This implied that they had been successful in eliminating the pollution. Why then is the quality of the water of these beaches monitored and information is updated daily by the City of Montréal? Access to the beaches is often forbidden after heavy rain because of a high sewage discharge due to the overflow of waste water.
Many of these beaches are nothing more than wishful thinking; the beach at Île Charron in Longueuil is a good example. The development of the beach cost $2.6M in 2016 and it has not been accessible for swimming since 2020. The City of Longueuil explains that the beach was closed to swimming due to the necessity of major works to improve the quality of the water. They do not specify if the major works are at the beach or at the South Shore Sewage Treatment Centre. May I remind you that the beach at Île Charron was developed next to the Sewage Treatment Centre? The closure of the beach could have something to do with a surprising reality: the City of Longueuil holds first place among Québec’s major cities for waste water discharge. The city is making significant investments to address this situation.
Access projects should not depend, sine qua non, on the development of a beach allowing swimming. It can include a park, docks, ramps and beaches to relax. Projects with the possibility of swimming will be rare as long as our river will be subject to sewage discharge. There may be alternatives.
During a walk on the banks of the Seine in Paris, a few years ago, I discovered the Josephine Baker pool.
