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

dissolved oxygen

Youth conservation group analyzing water quality of Virginia River in St. John's

Youth conservation group analyzing water quality of Virginia River in St. John's

A conservation team is working to research lost or covered waterways using geographic technology to analyze water quality. The Conversation Corp N.L.’s Green Team, in partnership with Northeast Avalon ACAP (NAACAP), has begun analyzing the Virginia River and implementing other guidelines to assess other spots along the river. The team has been recording measurements of the sites and assessing culvert conditions, depth and velocity of the water, PH value, dissolved oxygen, total organic solids, salt content and temperature conditions.

Province 'serious about compliance' at Travellers Rest, P.E.I. wash plant

Province 'serious about compliance' at Travellers Rest, P.E.I. wash plant

A potato wash plant in Travellers Rest is cleaning up its act, and the pressure is on after the province issued a directive letter in mid-January. P.E.I. Potato Solutions is getting ready to open a new, larger facility next month, said co-owner Austin Roberts. Neighbours have made numerous complaints to the provincial Department of Environment as well as Environment Canada regarding the plant’s practices over the years. On Dec. 26, a heavy rainfall, combined with other factors, caused a holding pond containing organic waste from the plant to discharge into the environment.

Baffled over the purpose of new water and watershed bylaw

Baffled over the purpose of new water and watershed bylaw

On Oct. 20, 2018 the citizens of the Cowichan Valley voted for establishing the Drinking Water and Watershed Protection Service Establishment Bylaw (#4202). We thought that this bylaw would be used to protect our water supplies. It has been known for many years that the wells at three commercial establishments on Fisher Road, Cobble Hill had nitrate levels greatly exceeding the Health Canada Drinking Water Guidelines. These wells and surrounding CVRD monitoring wells have been monitored by a number of agencies, including the CVRD, in the past. The Cobble Hill Aquifer Interagency Task Group (CHAITG) was established to deal with this nitrate contamination and this Task Group commissioned Western Water Associates Ltd. (WWAL) to carry out a review of past studies. Surprisingly, this review did not review aquifer nitrite levels, only nitrate levels. Nitrite is a bigger concern than nitrate since nitrite can convert the oxygen-carrying hemoglobin to methemoglobin which does not carry oxygen. Thus, nitrite can cause tissue oxygen deficiency which is particularly problematical for infants and children since it can stunt their mental and physical growth.

Portable water testing kits can be used for 'citizen science' across Canada

Portable water testing kits can be used for 'citizen science' across Canada

Over the last few years, WWF Canada conducted research that showed information on the health of Canada's water was lacking across the country. "We found that 65 per cent of our watersheds didn't have enough data available to understand the health of them," said Heather Crochetiere, senior fresh water specialist at WWF Canada.

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