History

Where Water Quality Began:

RiverSides First Decade RiverSides originated in 1995 as the Watershed Infrastructure Ecology Program (WIEP), a water quality project to encourage individual household actions that, as a cumulative community effort, would combat contamination of the Don River arising from combined sewer overflows and contaminated stormwater.

From 1996 to 1998, WIEP summer staff canvassed 40,000 households in the lower Don River watershed to deliver this unique combination of action and education solutions. In 1997 the vision and success of 5 Things You Can Do for the Don, and the associated Water in the City Walk, was awarded international recognition by the U.S. Council of Great Lakes Governors and The Conservation Fund as Ontario’s urban success story for nonpoint source (NPS) pollution prevention outreach and education in the Great Lakes watershed. The award was reflected in the 5 Things inclusion as the recommended community based storm water outreach program in MOE’s Stormwater Pollution Prevention Handbook.

Founding executive director Kevin Mercer established RiverSides Stewardship Alliance in fall 1998, and WIEP evolved into the 5 Things You Can Do For Your River campaign. This decision was reinforced by the Region of Ottawa-Carleton’s request of RiverSides to establish a 5 Things program framework as part of their wet weather flow management plan. RiverSides in partnership with - R.V. Anderson Consulting and Adhawk Communications – designed the WaterLinks-CommunEAUté Project which launched in 2000. WaterLinks-CommunEAUté established RiverSides as a designer/implementer of sustainable wet weather programming for advanced municipalities.

RiverSides incorporated as an Ontario not for profit organization in March 2000. Following this, RiverSides introduced a line of NPS education and outreach projects to enhance the 5 Things program. First was the Water Information Network (WIN) an NPS clearinghouse for Canadians. Other projects to address a wide variety of grassroots stakeholders’ responsibilities for community generated nonpoint sourced pollution included: the Municipal Low Salt Diet, the RiverSafe Carwash Campaign, and the Dental Mercury/What’s in Your Sewers campaigns. During this time RiverSides also commenced production and marketing the RiverSafe RainBarrel. The RiverSafe RainBarrel initiative provided a practical link between NPS wet weather outreach, and the ability to provide a practical and effective lot level solutions wet weather solution to homeowners. This reflected RiverSides policy shift to emphasize the emerging methodology of low impact development. RiverSides contributed considerable time to the development of the City of Toronto’s Wet Weather Flow Management Master Plan, policy direction for the Task Force to Bring Back The Don, and the Don Regeneration Council. However, despite these efforts, RiverSides found little opportunity to establish wet weather policy or BMP assistance programs in Toronto.

As a result, and in response to demand in the U.S. generated by the Clean Water Act’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), RiverSides’ focussed its work and programs on municipalities and NGOs in the United States. Kevin Mercer travelled extensively throughout the United States giving seminars, presentations and displays of the 5 Things community based social marketing framework, and the importance of lot level storm water management – a precursor approach that eventually found its best characterization in Low Impact Development.

In 2003, RiverSides was contracted by the 3 Rivers Wet Weather Demonstration Program in Pittsburgh, PA to design a comprehensive watershed approach for lot level storm water education and BMPs. This two-year project eventually emerged as the Nine Mile Run RainBarrel Initiative represented the pinnacle application of RiverSides’ 5 Things campaign and the largest application of the RiverSafe RainBarrel.