The fact that a massive sewage spill in the Ottawa River took a year to come to the attention of the provincial government and almost two to come to the attention of Ottawa city council highlights the fact that nobody is taking responsibility for the health of the river, environmental groups say.

The discharge of 1.2 billion litres of raw sewage took place in the summer of 2006, and has been blamed for fouling an Ottawa beach, but only became public knowledge last week.

Since then, the federal, provincial and municipal governments have all launched investigations into the incident.

Meredith Brown, head of the Ottawa Riverkeeper, a group that aims to protect and promote the river's ecological well-being, said because so many jurisdictions are involved, nobody pays close enough attention to pollutants that end up in the Ottawa River on a daily basis.

"There's no single agency that has that mandate," she said.

The many agencies and governments involved don't share information properly, she added, either because the procedures don't exist or aren't respected.

Rick Findlay, director of the water program at the environmental organization Pollution Probe, said the only information that is properly shared about the river has to do with its water levels, as that information is needed to manage hydroelectric power generation.

"In other words, there's a big economic incentive to manage it wisely and well and carefully. With the pollution, the water quality side of things, it's a lot fuzzier."

Both Findlay and Brown agree on which group they think should be getting more involved to turn things around for the Ottawa River.

"It's an interprovincial river, so the federal government should be taking responsibility," said Brown. "They should be the ones putting together the team of people that will help protect the river."