Resolve to Protect Your River

For 2016 we challenge you to help protect our waterways by making a resolution to take action.

Please join us and help keep our rivers swimmable, drinkable and fishable with these new year’s resolutions:

1. Give Up Products Containing Triclosan and Microbeads

You can make a huge difference by avoiding products that pollute our rivers and oceans. Read the ingredient list. “Antibacterial” soaps and sanitizers often contain triclosan, an endocrine disruptor that gets into aquatic life and biomagnifies. It can disrupt photosynthesis in algae and cause male fish to grow ovaries. Avoid toothpaste, body washes and facial scrubs with plastic microbeads. These unnecessary additives do not break down in the environment and are polluting our waterways.

See our full comic about triclosan here.

2. Pledge to Conserve Water

In Canada, up to 25 percent of toilets leak. That’s 1.8 billion litres of clean, treated water — the same amount of water that flows over Niagara Falls every 11 minutes — going down the toilet every day. Take our short Ripple Effect survey to learn how much water and money you can save while helping to protect our river.

3. Get Involved – we need your help!

  • Volunteer to help keep the Ottawa River swimmable, drinkable and fishable
  • Report pollution. See something fishy? Call our Pollution Hotline at 1-888-9KEEPER. We can help put a stop to the harm.
  • Help improve the Ottawa River’s ecological health and future with a year-end donation. There’s lots of ways to give.

We want to hear what you will do this year to protect our valuable water. Get creative and accept our #OttRivResolution challenge, and be sure to get your friends on board. Many small changes can make a big difference!

Warm wishes for a healthy and happy New Year,

From the team at Ottawa Riverkeeper

P.S. Also check out these ideas to help you teach and raise awareness about the health of the Ottawa River.


A special thanks to James Peltzer (Ottawa River photo) & Jaymie Dylan (triclosan comic)!

One response to “Resolve to Protect Your River”

  1. Ellie Davis says:

    Thank you for suggesting that you should pledge to conserve water. Helping our rivers seems like it could be very important to the environment. Hopefully, people look into how they can help.