Rodrigue and Saint-Hyacinthe waterway sampling (Rouge River tributaries), 2014

The COBAVER-VS, since 2010, is busy diagnosing water quality in all Vaudreuil-Soulanges watersheds to prioritize interventions in line with the Water management plan. A strategy was developped to obtain water quality data for the most disturbed rivers, as no data was available.

Rouge river watershed drains 74.25 km2 of land which 80 % is dedicated to agriculture. According to the study on water quality of Vaudreuil-Soulanges agricultural watersheds realised by the COBAVER-VS, Rouge River would have the most recurrent problems of surface water quality. Water quality was analyzed near the mouth of St. Lawrence River and in one upstream river branch. The alarming water quality downstream and the important river branching indicate the necessity of evaluating water quality of Rouge River tributaries. It will allow determining sources of contaminants in order to realize more efficient interventions. Consequently, in this project we analyzed water quality of two important tributaries: Rodrigue and Saint-Hyacinthe waterways.