There is a growing movement in Lachine to open up Lac Saint-Louis to recreational swimming.
Mayor Claude Dauphin took the plunge into the lake Tuesday, after proposing that new docks be built off the shoreline of certain parks so people can dive or jump into the water.
“The water is nice, fresh, not too cold. Everything went well,” he told Global News after his freshwater dip.
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He explained years of clean-up efforts and weekly water quality monitoring indicate the lake’s conditions are good.
The mayor admitted that the water quality isn’t satisfactory every day, but more work is being done to keep it clean.
Water quality monitoring, he said, shows that levels are equal to that of the Rivière des Prairies at Cap-Saint-Jacques.
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He said he wants to work with other West Island mayors, as well as the provincial and federal governments, to make it happen.
Decades ago, Lac Saint-Louis was a commonly-used watering hole, but it was also heavily polluted with trash, raw sewage and untreated water.
“If they have sand, keep it clean and maintain it, have people watching over, I would certainly go,” said resident Francesco Ingrao.
For Maja Vodanovic, a candidate for the borough’s mayoralty in the upcoming municipal election, installing docs is an election priority.
“If you go and look at the tests it’s zero to 10, which is excellent quality,” she said.
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However, Dauphin warns the docks have to be strategically placed to make sure the currents don’t take people downstream to LaSalle.
If all goes as planned, the hope is that the docks will be in place by next summer.
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