Fact: Urban stormwater washes a variety of effluents into the river after every storm, contaminants like gasoline, bacteria like e coli, dog and other animal feces, as well as a range of other pollutants. The City of Saskatoon does nothing to prevent or treat urban stormwater.
Question: So, if the waterpark is going to be for kids on tubes as well as kayakers, how are we going to ensure that the water is safe? Is it going to be tested after each storm? (Last summer, that would have been almost daily!) Who is going to pay for these tests?
Pelican Byte: Why not spend 15 million on ways to keep those effluents OUT of our river, rather than making a concrete watercourse as a lure that will encourage our kids to swim in it?
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Check back regularly for updates on the campaign to keep the weir off-limits to humans. Help us oppose--and mock!--the idea of turning Saskatoon's weir into a megamillion dollar artificial white-water playground and not-so-green dam.
Click on photo to go there!
Pelicans are free!
A white-water playground will be very, very expensive (think 15 million at the very least). AND NOW another $50 million for a dam.
Join Pelican Watch!
- CONTACT US AT pelicanW@gmail.com.
- Become a "pelicanista": a Saskatonian who prefers pelican-watching to rafting, tubing, and tiny boats bounced around by boisterous neoprene-clad paddlers.
- A community of pro-pelican folks who like to "loaf and invite the soul" while down by the riverside.
- Now the time has come for letter-writing, for creative protest, for speaking out.
This site is dedicated to maintaining wild and semi-wild spaces in the context of urban Saskatoon.
Check back regularly for updates on the campaign to keep the weir off-limits to humans. Help us oppose--and mock!--the idea of turning Saskatoon's weir into a megamillion dollar artificial white-water playground and not-so-green dam.
Alternative Sites for a White Water "facility"
- 1. Mount Blackstrap: one white elephant deserves another; or maybe they'll cancel one another out? White water in summer, luge and skiing in winter. Go for it, fellas!
- 2. On the Churchill River (in fact, isn't that where there are real rapids?)
- 3. West Edmonton Mall
- 4. Inside an actual building, with walls and a roof, so those who don't want to watch don't have to.
- 5. Colorado
Ten Reasons To Keep Saskatoon's Weir As It Is!
- 1. The pelicans choose to feed where we can watch and enjoy them, and you shouldn't blow that kind of good karma.
- 2. The South Saskatchewan is already dammed!
- 3. Pelicans don't go shooting through the water yelling "kowabunga!"
- 4. Holding hands while watching pelicans drifting around is kinda romantic.
- 5. Pelicans are the original synchronized swimmers.
- 6. It's hard to feel romantic watching a guy muscle his kayak through fake rapids.
- 7. The weir is paid for.
- 8. The South Saskatchewan has been declared Canada's most threatened river.
- 9. Quiet spaces where nothing much is happening are essential to the health of busy urbanites.
- 10. Pelicans are free!
White Water Park and Green Power Hydro Dam by the numbers
- Estimated cost of the dam: 42 MILLION.: Wait, it's now $65 million. Give them another year and it'll be up to $75 million.
- The dam will provide electricity to about 3200 homes. That's over $130 grand per house.
- Province's contribution: $100,000 to study the white water play pool aspect
- City of Saskatoon's contribution so far: $30,000 for a study plus $300,000 to study the hydro aspect
- Estimated cost of the white water park: $5 MILLION: Nope, that was last week. Now it's up to $15 milion!
Write to Our City Council
Click on photo to go there!
About Us
- Pelican Watch
- Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
- We are a loose-knit group of pelican fanatics who don't want to see the South Saskatchewan river, the weir in particular, turned into a playground for a few folks who prefer fake rapids to the real thing. We believe we should live with nature and not against it. To contact us, send an email to pelicanW@gmail.com.
contact us
We welcome your pelican thoughts, pelican photos, pelican anecdotes. Email us at pelicanW@gmail.com.