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.
Federal delays are allowing billions of litres of wastewater to be dumped in Canadian waters including marine protected areas, an environmental group says. In a report released this week, the World Wildlife Fund said the federal government has yet to follow through on a three-year-old commitment to bring in new regulations on what waste ships can release into the oceans. It says that lack of progress is allowing ships to keep releasing bilgewater, sewage, grey water and other wastewater.
Spotty research and inconsistent monitoring have made it impossible to evaluate the health of most Canadian watersheds, a study has found. “It’s still largely unknown,” said Elizabeth Hendricks of the World Wildlife Fund, which has just released its second evaluation of the condition of Canada’s freshwater environments. Hendricks said the report points to the need for standardized, national water monitoring done by local communities.
