Laval, Que. residents, environment groups demand solution to river contamination

Residents have been noticing a stream turning grey over a dozen times in recent years, and the government is facing pressure to address the problem.

Residents are sounding the alarm about the apparent contamination of a river in Laval, Que., and are calling on the province to fix it.

Laval resident Francis Letourneau enjoys taking walks through the Bois Papineau nature park not far from his home.

The small river, called Ruisseau la Piniere, is a common stop.

“For me, this place is really important,” he told Global News. “It’s the biggest creek in Laval. This is the main source of water and food for the wildlife in this park.”

One day in 2019, he noticed something was off. The river was running grey.

“It’s supposed to be clear or brown, but it was like more of a greyish colour like cement, like a sidewalk,” he recalled.

He and his wife walked near the river quite a bit during the pandemic, as there wasn’t much else to do.

They documented a total of 13 occasions the river turned totally grey. He says other park users told him this had been going on for a decade or more.