Jock River debate could use more facts

Randall Denley

The Ottawa Citizen
Wednesday, October 16, 2002

Golf course owner Frank Chiarelli's request to take more water from the Jock River is being portrayed by environmentalists as a disaster in the making that will virtually destroy the river. It's frustratingly difficult to tell if that's true, because the people who watch out for the Jock don't have much data about the west- end river.

The owner of the Riverbend golf course would like to take up to 1.1 million litres a day for irrigation, about five times what his existing permit allows. He has an engineering study, conducted last year, that shows there's sufficient flow to allow that kind of removal. The Friends of the Jock environmental group has complained that the river is already nearly dry in some parts of Chiarelli's golf course, being reduced to nothing more than disconnected pools.

That's so, but the dry areas are upstream from the spot where Chiarelli wants to take his water. Taking more water out downstream won't make those parts of the river any drier. The reason there's water at Chiarelli's pump house is because of a drainage ditch from a nearby trout farm. It has a steady flow of water and runs into the Jock near where Chiarelli takes water now.

Chiarelli also argues that most of the water he takes from the river ends up back in the river, either by seeping through the thin soil or by running off in his drainage ditches. That seems a bit hard to believe, although Chiarelli's engineering study mentions the flow back without quantifying it. A spokesman for the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority is skeptical of the idea that much water gets back into the river. The golf course owner gets perhaps half a point for that argument.

The conservation authority is the public body in charge of managing the Jock. Spokesman Bruce Reid says the organization's limited historical flow records are from much farther down the river. Anecdotally, people have observed that the Jock has always had a mighty flow in the spring and not much in the summer. Part of that is due to agricultural land drainage that has eliminated wetlands.

Safeguarding the Jock is part of the conservation authority's mandate, but the money for improvements, and even monitoring of the river's health, is limited. Not really knowing what the correct minimum flow level for the Jock is, his agency would prefer a conservative approach that favours the health of the river, not the golf course.

The decision will be made by a provincial bureaucrat, although the public has until Saturday to make comments.

This is a difficult issue to form a fair opinion on. Intuitively, it would seem that taking any water from the river is a bad thing. But the river level fluctuates wildly over the summer, and would continue to do so even if the golf course didn't take out a drop.

It obviously wouldn't be in Chiarelli's interest to run the river dry. Nor would there be any point in him trying to suck tiny amounts of water from isolated pools above his pump house. The volume of water Chiarelli has requested seems enormous compared to what he has now, but if there isn't sufficient water to allow the volume he wants to take, he obviously won't be taking it.

The potentially valid concern is what effect more taking of water will have on the Jock downstream, below the golf course. Again, we don't know enough about that, other than anecdotal evidence about lack of flow in the Richmond area.

Chiarelli's golf course is for sale. No doubt its value would be enhanced with greater irrigation. In dry weather, hitting a golf ball off the fairway at Riverbend is like smacking it off concrete. To move Riverbend up to the A level of courses, a new owner would definitely require more water.

Conservation authorities are vital to protecting natural resources, but they don't have much money to work with. The Rideau Valley authority ought to know more about the Jock than it does, but it's only able to guess at how much water could be appropriately taken from the river without damaging it. Right now, the golf course owner is the only one with any real facts and figures.

The Friends of the Jock deserve credit for bringing this issue to the public's attention. Without their efforts, we wouldn't even know about the golf course's plans. Chiarelli's permit to take water at the existing level is valid for next year. That gives the provincial environment ministry lots of time to assess the river's flow and tell the public what should be done, and why. That's the fair approach for the golf course owner, and the river.

Contact Randall Denley at 596-3756 or by e-mail, rdenley@thecitizen.southam.ca

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