Hamilton Harbour tour shows off city's evolving waterway

Theyd studied samples taken from Hamilton Harbour, but until Friday the McMaster University students aboard a small tour boat had never actually been out on the water.

Dustin Garrick, the recently appointed Philomathia Foundation Professor in Water Policy and Research at McMaster and one of the organizers of the universitys Water Week conference wanted to change that.

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"We live in the borders of Hamilton Harbour, Lake Ontario. We can observe with our own eyes some of the impacts on water quality it really does require developing that personal connection to inspire action." Garrick said.

A geographer by training, Garrick specializes in water issues and has a special interest in extreme weather events like the recent Burlington floods.

"Our local challenges are now at the top of the global agenda," Garrick said, pointing to the citys efforts to deal with climate change, pollution and dangerous events like the August flood are the same as other governments around the world.

The conference looked at many of these issues, from setting goals about providing water to the UN-estimated 780 million people who lack access to clean water, to the policies protecting the water in the Great Lakes.

Garrick said the conference was also designed with the idea of bringing together students and professors with different specialties from governance to engineering to water-focused biochemistry.

"A lot of these local water challenges are clear and present and we need to work collaboratively to solve them," Garrick said.

A clean harbour would improve Hamilton's rep: BARC

On Friday, about 20 students signed up for the two tours of Hamilton Harbour.

Chris McLaughlin, the Executive Director of the Bay Area Restoration Council (BARC), joined the students on the boat to outline both the harbours history and its potential.

"The biggest problem that we face right now, is that it looks really good. And so its hard to imagine that 'stinking rotten quagmire of filth and poisonous waste,'as it was described 50 years ago,"McLaughlin said.

"That doesnt mean we dont have a ton of things to do."

McLaughlin said one of BARCs biggest goals is getting off a list of the most polluted places in the Great Lakes.

"Thats going to go so, so, far in changing the channel on perceptions of Hamilton," he said.

But, McLaughlin says, theres a ton of work to do before that day comes, and he invited the students to help.

Even if they dont keep doing lab work, he said, they can just be an ambassador about the harbour.

"Individuals can make a difference engage with the public. Try and change peoples hearts and minds. Tell them something they dont know,"McLaughlin said.

"The community here has been physically, legally, emotionally, psychologically cut off from the bay for at least a couple of generations, so the idea that you would actually come down here is still the furthest thing from peoples mind."

Todays outing was a good first step, McLaughlin said, in opening some eyes to the nicer aspects of the harbour.

"When you get down here you realize we have things that other places can only dream of having. We want to make them better."