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.
Thousands of property owners in Sudbury will receive letter in the mail this week regarding insurance for water service or sewer septic line. The City of Greater Sudbury has partnered with Service Line Warranties of Canada (SLWC) to offer insurance. Many homeowners don't realize, depending on where a leak or damage in a line occurs, repair costs could be coming out of resident's pocket if it’s not covered by property insurance.
The prevalent plan is to extract water from the fine dust deposits found in the moon’s north and south poles and separate it into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen would be used as fuel to allow space travel beyond the moon, while the oxygen would be utilized to sustain life. At the moon’s north pole alone, an estimated 60 million tonnes of water is available for extraction. “If we convert all of that water into shuttle fuel, we could launch a shuttle per day for more than 2,000 years, just with the water that’s at the north pole,” said Dale Boucher, ISRU and Space Mining Consultant. “There’s a lot of water on the moon. It’s not as dry as we thought it would be.”
The Greater Sudbury Watershed Alliance wants the northern Ontario city to stop building major roads near the city's watershed. The group says because arterial roads are legislated to be clear of snow between three to eight hours after a snowfall, the city has to use salt to reach that target. Smaller, less busy roads, though, don't have the same requirements in place, and the city can use sand for traction instead.
Water and wastewater rates are also increasing by 4.8 per cent. "The 2023 municipal budget represents responsible investments for modern, inclusive and sustainable city services that continue to meet resident needs," Mayor Paul Lefebvre said. "Council has approved a plan that emphasizes resident health, safety and well-being along with continued investments in our assets and infrastructure as well as our economic future."
Contractors have been deployed to Sudbury's Ramsey Lake to clean up a residential oil spill that migrated to the shoreline on Jan. 17. The Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks estimates around 812 litres of home heating fuel spilled onto the ground from a storage tank at a property on Gennings Street, near the lake. While Ramsey Lake is the main source of the city's drinking water, ministry spokesperson Gary Wheeler said there is only a low risk to the thousands of people who get their municipal drinking water from the lake.
An oil spill that started at a home along Ramsey Lake in Sudbury, Ont., has since reached the shoreline, said Public Health Sudbury and Districts. The health unit said in a news release that the spill Jan. 14 started from the fuel oil tank of a home on Gennings Street near the lake. Public health said it immediately alerted the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, as well as people who lived nearby.
Greater Sudbury has the oldest system of underground water pipes among similar cities in Canada, according to a new report headed to a city committee next week. While overall leakage rates are about average in Sudbury, in the Levack area it was 47 per cent, meaning almost half of the drinking water processed in the area was being lost. More recently, a very large leak was uncovered in the Levack system that was largely responsible for the problem.
He says the total cost of building Victoria Mine — including a headframe, full water treatment plant and hydro substation— is expected to be over $1 billion. Dunlop says they expect to have a workforce of 400 when they go into production, but it's a bit early for miners to start dropping off their resumes. "It will still be a number of years out for getting to full scale production," he said. "We have very high hopes for this."
A stewardship group in Sudbury, Ont., has installed eight catch basin filters on local waterways that have collected 31 kilograms of garbage so far. A catch basin consists of a grate and a drainage pipe, which are meant to collect large debris.The newly installed filters would help to catch smaller debris such as cigarette butts. The Junction Creek Stewardship Committee received $98,296 from Environment and Climate Change Canada's EcoAction Grant program to install filters into catch basins throughout the city.
The series of black pipes currently jutting out onto Elm Street, coupled with the groups of construction workers toiling away this summer, means some big infrastructure projects are in the works for downtown Sudbury, one of more than 20 the city hopes to wrap up by winter. Brittany Hallam, the city's director of linear infrastructure services, said improvements to the city's water mains is the cause of the congestion, and the snake-like trail of pipe running along the sidewalks.
Children across Greater Sudbury have been creating artwork connected to the environment, and some will become marketing posters. It's part of the Tiny Traces along Junction Creek — a project between the Junction Creek Stewardship Committee and Early Childhood Creative Collaboration. It was funded through Healthy Communities Canada.
An angler's surprise catch may indicate a decades-long cleanup effort in Sudbury has been successful. On February 4, Andrew Shea pulled a 3.4 kilogram mature female trout from Nepahwin Lake. The 128-hectare body of water is wedged between Paris Street, a busy, four-lane thoroughfare, a private golf course, and a heavily-densified residential neighborhood– not prime habitat for the highly-sensitive lake trout.
A new program is underway in Greater Sudbury, encouraging people to be aware of where fire hydrants are in their neighbourhoods and whether they can be accessed. The Hydrant Hero program asks volunteers to make sure hydrants are free from snow and ice in their neighbourhood. Participants can send a photo to the city, suggest a name for a new city mascot and potentially win a prize. Public safety officer with Greater Sudbury Fire Services, Jimmy Kolar, said city crews work to keep the more than 5,800 hydrants clear during the winter.
The new smart water meter system being installed in homes across Greater Sudbury will help customers track water consumption, in real time. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the city embarked on a $17 million project to switch old water meters to smart technology. After several delays, the work continues with more than 80 per cent of customers still to change over.
A non-profit organization called Water First that helps to address water challenges in Indigenous communities in Canada through training has received a $20,000 boost from Sudbury benefactors. Rotary International District 7010, which includes the Rotary Club of Sudbury Sunrisers, has been working with Water First to facilitate donations. At the same time, the Doyle Dodge car dealership here in Sudbury has been running a charitable project, the Doyle 100 Community Campaign, as part of its 100th anniversary celebrations.
A drinking water advisory is in place for a northern Ontario community until further notice after an issue with the water distribution system. The Township of Chapleau says residents shouldn’t consume the water coming from the taps in their homes but says safe drinking water is available for collection at the local water treatment plant. In a notice Tuesday, the township said an equipment issue at the plant caused a loss of pressure in the water distribution system that may have compromised the safety of the drinking water.
Planned water conservation by Intercity Shopping Centre is expected to benefit the environment and the mall’s tenants by optimizing water use and reducing water costs. Intercity Shopping Centre has been chosen along with New Sudbury Centre in Sudbury and Northgate Shopping Centre in North Bay to have a Smart Valve installed which aims to save water use by 10-25 per cent. Most water metres measure by volume, which means that any air volume gets billed as water. The device measures water usage more accurately and reduces over-delivery of water, essentially improving sustainable performance.
The first ever water walk of Junction Creek in Greater Sudbury, is being planned for later this month. The urban waterway is well known for the litter and debris that collects in it regularly. But lead conductor, Tasha Beeds, says that's why they're doing it. The Indigenous ceremony of water walking calls attention to the life-giving nature water provides.
Starting May 5th to 9th, Plains Cree Mide-Kwe Water Walker Tasha Beeds will conduct a Ceremonial Water Walk for Nibi Nikwejiwong (Junction Creek), in Sudbury Ontario. This will be done following all COVID guidelines. Tasha Beeds was mentored under Josephine-Ba Mandamin, a highly respected Anishinaabe Grandmother and Late Water Walker who walked around the Great Lakes to bring awareness to the problems of water pollution and environmental degradation.
Activists in northeastern Ontario fighting for safe, clean water in First Nations communities across Canada are getting tired of broken promises. After five years and millions in spending, the Liberal government announced in early December that it would not fulfill its commitment to end all long-term water advisories on reserves by March 2021. Although some progress has been made – 97 advisories have been lifted since November 2015 – there’s still a long way to go. There are 59 active long-term water advisories in 41 communities across the country, and activists maintain that clean water should be a priority for the federal government, especially during a global pandemic. “Water is a basic human right, and nobody should have to beg for it. This is wrong, and it’s come to the point where I think it comes down to racism,” said Autumn Peltier, a teenage water-rights activist from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island.
