Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

groundwater wells

BEYOND LOCAL: Freshwater basins drying up increases threat to ecosystem, communities

BEYOND LOCAL: Freshwater basins drying up increases threat to ecosystem, communities

When people use freshwater beyond a physically sustainable rate, it sets off a cascade of impacts on ecosystems, people and the planet. These impacts include groundwater wells running dry, fish populations becoming stranded before they are able to spawn and protected wetland ecosystems turning into dry landscapes. Developments in computer models and satellites have fostered a new understanding of how freshwater is being redistributed around the planet and have made clear the central role that people play in this change. This human impact is so significant that organizations like the United States Geological Survey are redrawing their water cycle diagram to include the impacts of human actions.

P.E.I. environment officials consider creating water-use buffer

P.E.I. environment officials consider creating water-use buffer

P.E.I. environment officials are mulling whether to create a water-use buffer given that farmers will be able to apply to construct more high-capacity wells under the province's impending irrigation strategy. Currently, regulations allow groundwater wells to draw down a waterway by 35 per cent of a stream's base flow in August and September. But Bruce Raymond, manager of water and air monitoring at the Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action, says officials are weighing whether to only permit 90 per cent of that draw down.

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