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.
According to a Capital Regional District official, finding free-living nematodes, even deceased ones, at a drinking water tap in the Greater Victoria Drinking Water System is highly unlikely. “While Greater Victoria’s drinking water is unfiltered, it receives multiple stages of disinfection treatment that would kill any aquatic organism before the water reaches the consumer’s taps,” said Andy Orr.
In fact, Greater Victoria is so parched it has just set a record for the driest period in its recorded weather history, said Steven Murray, a local weather analyst who chronicles weather patterns at Gonzales Observatory in Victoria. The federal Gonzales station opened in 1914, but data for the area goes back to 1898, when weather patterns were collected at a former station on Cook Street. It is considered one of the longest-running set of measurements on the Pacific coast of North America.
Beyond ruining a perfectly good soccer pitch, the kilogram of daily droppings a single adult Canada goose can produce can also contaminate water and cause algae blooms that steal oxygen and block sunlight for underwater plants. Local birder Geoffrey Newell said they can also be aggressive birds and sometimes steal food from ducks and other goose species. He noted this doesn’t apply to Canada geese fully native to B.C., which migrate to the Arctic in winter.
Residents in Greater Victoria are being advised not to enter the water at two shoreline locations due to wastewater discharge after heavy rain. The two affected shorelines are between Tarn Place and Seaview Road (Cadboro Bay), and between Radcliffe Lane and Trafalgar Park (McNeil Bay). Warning signs have been put up at beaches in both areas, and will only be removed after tests confirm bacteria levels are below acceptable levels.
