Archive for the ‘Waterways’ Category

St. Pierre River tragedy- last open portion of the historic Montreal river is buried on the Meadowbrook golf course

20/03/2022 by Larry

Les amis du parc Meadowbrook, released a press release on Feb. 24, 2022 with photos to document this tragic event. The photos were taken Feb. 19-20, 2022.

Construction crews hired by the City of Montreal are currently burying the last open portion of the St. Pierre River on the Lachine side of Meadowbrook. See the press release for details.

The storm sewer newly connected to the Toe Blake Park collector which was the source of the St. Pierre River. The riverbed, which can be seen in the bottom right of the picture, no longer has any flow as all the river water is now being bypassed through the storm sewer which will soon be completely buried.

This is one of the few segments of the St. Pierre River storm sewer pipe that had not been buried yet on Feb. 13, 2022. It is right in the middle of the golf course as can be seen by the beautiful winter scene in the background. All that will remain of the river water will be manhole covers at intervals across this greenspace.

This picture shows the small amount of frozen water remaining in the St. Pierre riverbed. A large pile of rocks and soil from the digging of the trench for the storm sewer looms over the river. Thankfully City workers assured us that the riverbed would not be filled in and that all soil not used to bury the sewer would be removed.

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Please write the mayor – We must save the St. Pierre River!

13/03/2021 by Larry

Following a recent Quebec Court of Appeal decision concerning the St. Pierre River where it crosses the Meadowbrook golf course, Les Amis du Parc Meadowbrook is concerned about the future of the river, and it has launched a letter-writing campaign to try to save it.

The environmental group Les Amis du Parc Meadowbrook has been working for over thirty years to preserve the green space on the Meadowbrook golf course as an urban nature heritage park, accessible to all. This 57-hectare tract of land, half of which lies in Lachine (Montreal) and half in the City of Côte Saint-Luc, is traversed by a two-hundred metre stretch of the St. Pierre River.

Dec. 2020. Photo Nigel Dove

The situation

The storm sewer collector that feeds the river is contaminated by sanitary sewer cross-connections, so the court had ordered that all pollution of the river must be stopped. As of last summer, most of the water was able to be deviated from entering the golf course except during periods of heavy rain. This was already of considerable concern to us as it led to a drying up of the river through most of year, thus stressing the river ecosystem.

A January 2021 Quebec Court of Appeal decision may seal the fate of the river. It forbids any water from the storm sewer collector, contaminated or not, from flowing on the golf course. This would in effect permanently kill the river.

The City of Montreal recognizes the importance of rivers and streams on the Island of Montreal. In fact, in 2014, it gave nine reasons (Resolution CM14 1141) why rivers and streams should be protected, ranging from ecosystem protection to reduction in flooding, and thenunanimously adopted a motionto protect and manage existing urban rivers and create or recreate new ones.

We believe there are solutions to the contamination of the St. Pierre River flowing through the golf course other than a permanent deviation and we are asking Montreal to find a solution.

 

The environmental issues

  • Streams increase the capacity and available surface area to evacuate runoff water, particularly during intense storms or during thaw periods, and reduce the risk of flooding and overflows.*
  • Streams and their vegetated banks are islands of natural coolness and play an important role in the health and well-being of Montrealers.*
  • Streams are important elements of an ecosystem since they are habitats and refuges for several species, and their presence contributes to the richness of biodiversity.*
  • The water quality of the St. Lawrence and Rivière des Prairies depends on the quality of their tributaries; *
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance of access to nature: Meadowbrook shows tremendous potential as an urban nature heritage park accessible to all.

*an unofficial translation from the 2014 Resolution CM14 1141 referred to above

 

The heritage significance

Some thirty-six rivers and streams used to flow across the island of Montreal. Urbanization and industrialization caused their complete or partial disappearance.

  • The St. Pierre River had its source at the foot of Mount Royal and originally emptied into the St. Lawrence River in Verdun. At the foot of the Falaise Saint-Jacques, it formed a shallow lake, Lac Saint-Pierre or Otter Lake, where the Turcot Interchange now sits.
  • In Montreal’s early days, the river was a route across the island that avoided the Lachine Rapids; it provided water for people, crops and livestock.
  • In order to provide water power to the Sulpicians’ mills, in 1697, water from the St. Pierre River was diverted into the Petite Rivière which flowed into the St. Lawrence at Pointe à Callière. In the 19th century, the Petite Rivière was buried in the William Collector.
  • There have been several failed attempts to daylight the St. Pierre River in recent years.

 

To learn more, please seean article on the St. Pierre Riveron our website.  Also, here isour group’s presentation about the riverprepared by Louise Legault at an international conference on daylighting rivers held in Florence, Italy, in 2020.

 

Stand up for the river     –     Please write the mayor!

Please write to the City of Montreal asking them to preserve the St. Pierre River in line with the sentiments expressed in the 2014 Resolution.

We have prepared a form letter inFrenchandEnglishfor your convenience. Please rewrite or modify as you like.

And, feel free to pass along this note to anyone you think would be interested in the issue.

*****************************

To:    Madame Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montreal valerie.plante@montreal.ca

Copy:

  • robert.beaudry@montreal.ca Responsible for housing, real estate strategy, large parks and parc Jean-Drapeau
  • sylvain.ouellet@montreal.ca  Responsible for water/waterworks, infrastructures, and the Commission des services électriques
  • lesamisdemeadowbrook@gmail.com for our files

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The St. Pierre River – Two years later

24/06/2020 by Janice

In July 2018, Les Amis du Parc Meadowbrook shone a light on the condition of the St. Pierre River where it flows through Meadowbrook. A Superior Court decision had just been handed down requiring the City of Montreal to stop polluting what is left of a once-mighty river. But what had seemed like a good idea proved complicated to execute.

The City of Montreal was aware of the pollution as early as 2002, as identified in sampling done by the Réseau de suivi des milieux aquatiques at the time. The pollution appears to come from residential sewers in Montreal West and Côte Saint-Luc that are connected to the rainwater system rather than to sanitary installations. A 2014 City of Montreal study of the Toe Blake rainwater collector showed 250 such crossed connections.

Repairing faulty connections is costly. They must first be located; then roadways must be excavated down to the storm sewers, which are usually much deeper than the sanitary installations. These connections often date back to the building of the house, and current occupants may not be aware of the situation. At issue is who is responsible for the repairs.

Because the problem was a long-standing one, the Superior Court gave the City of Montreal two years to correct it. The City appealed unsuccessfully. Facing a hard deadline, the City chose to divert the Toe Blake collector during dry periods. The collector would then continue to play its role during storms, averting overflow and potential flooding of basements.

The work was done in February of this year, and has changed the river significantly. The City promised to set the level of the collector to avoid the river running dry. Many Meadowbrook members have contacted us over the months to report extremely low water levels in the river, which is often just a series of unconnected puddles dotting the rocky riverbed and becomes a river again only after a good downpour.

Les Amis spoke to Professor Daniel Rivest of UQAM to learn the impact of changing water levels on the river’s ecosystem. He pointed out that the transitory nature of the river would prevent benthic macroinvertebrates from settling permanently on the riverbed. These insects, worms and crustaceans are a prime indicator of the health of a river or lake. They are an important link in the food chain, as a source of food for fish, amphibians and birds. Some species act as filters, while others break down matter and cause it to decompose and can therefore play a role in cleaning up a stream. Some species can survive drought, others cannot. Protecting the river is vital to preserve this ecosystem and the animals that depend on it.

Studies of the St. Pierre River

Two studies of the St. Pierre River have recently been published. The first was done by Les Amis du Parc Meadowbrook at the invitation of the Istituto per la Bioeconomia of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, for an international conference on daylighting rivers to be held in December in Florence, Italy.

You can learn more about the history of the St. Pierre, its challenges and future here:

Download (PDF, 724KB)

Meadowbrook members Kregg Hetherington and Tricia Toso of the Concordia University Ethnography Lab have also taken a closer look at the river in a recently published article https://www.anthropocenes.net/articles/10.16997/ahip.6/

Good reading!

 

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