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.
Charlottetown is one of many towns, districts and municipalities in Canada where drinking water is still flowing through asbestos cement pipes, an investigative report by a national broadcaster has found. W5 said it checked with more than 100 towns, districts and municipalities in the country and 90 per cent of them do have asbestos pipes. The pipes were installed decades ago, and all are nearing end-of-life but are still delivering tap water.
A very small percentage of water mains carrying drinking water to residents of Sault Ste. Marie have asbestos in them, PUC has confirmed. Although there is some debate on the subject, Health Canada has concluded that there is no evidence ingesting the substance is harmful to your health. Recently, an episode of the CTV television program W5 reported that asbestos-cement pipes are used in many municipalities across the country to deliver drinking water to residents.
There are no detectable levels of asbestos in Medicine Hat’s drinking water according to test results from ALS Laboratory Group in Cincinnati, Ohio. A recent episode of CTV network’s W5 program focused on the use of asbestos-cement (A-C) pipe in water distribution systems across Canada. Contributors claimed a potential public health issue if asbestos fibres from A-C pipe enter the water stream and were ingested. Information related to Medicine Hat’s water distribution system was included in the episode.
The city says it’s taking action to address concerns about what may be in our water supply. An investigative piece by CTV’s W5 last month shed light on how fibres from aging asbestos-cement pipes could be entering municipal water supplies. In response to the piece, the city posted an information page about asbestos and why municipalities currently don’t test for it in the water.
