This woman wants to make Grand River safer for recreational users
Advocate wants more signage around river access points and dams
The Grand River is a popular destination for canoeing, kayaking, fishing or swimming — but there are times when the river can be dangerous.
Two women died this past summer after they went down the river on personal flotation devices when the currents were running fast and high. Friends have identified the two women as Annette Martz and Rachel Taylor.
The tragedy prompted Amy Haertel, who knew Taylor, to take action. Haertel kayaks on the river and says while she's not a water safety specialist, she knows there are areas where people need to be extra careful.
She is calling on the Region of Waterloo and the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) to do more to keep people safe. As part of her campaign, she created a Facebook page called River Access Point Safety Movement to promote safety awareness, including telling people about low-head dams and weirs, which can be hard to see.
"We need dam owners to look at their dams and put signage around those dams. In particular, danger signage and portage signage," Haertel said.
"There's also water signage that can be added like buoys or booms ... that warn something dangerous is coming up for recreational users."
She is also advocating for additional signage at access points along the river. She wants that signage to include information about known obstacles or hazards in the area and a QR code linking users to flow and water level charts that are already available online.
"That can help the river user navigate and know what's coming up. Because I think a lot of times the inexperienced user just has no idea that these obstacles exist," she said.
Addressing the concerns
CBC News reached out to GRCA for comment on Thursday. The authority has not yet responded to the request.
David Miller, a GRCA board member representing Brant County, addressed some of Haertel's suggested improvements a general membership meeting on August 23.
"None of these -- I didn't think were too expensive. I don't know why we couldn't do most of them or all of them," he said, speaking to other board members during the meeting which is on YouTube.
"What of all those suggestions can we do and should we do?"
During the meeting, a GRCA representative said there are over 100 dams in the watershed, and out of those, the agency only owns and controls 30.
The representative also said the agency needs the approval of Transport Canada to add more signage along the river.
Haertel spoke at a regional council meeting on Aug. 28 asking the region to consider signage near dams.
At that meeting, regional Chair Karen Redman thanked her for speaking at the meeting.
"It's an important issue," Redman said.
Coun. Rob Deutschmann clarified that the region should be involved in signage and Haertel said it's her understanding the region owns a low-head dam at the Hidden Valley pond in Kitchener. Haertel said it's her understanding it's up to the dam owners to put up signage.
Redman said staff are looking into the request and would let Haertel know when the report was ready.
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