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.
Halifax Water says emergency repairs have been completed on a Duffus Street wastewater pump station in Halifax. In a release Thursday, the utility says operations have returned to normal after three pump failures in two months. The pump started operating Wednesday evening and was monitored overnight. Wastewater and stormwater are now being pumped from the Duffus Street station to a wastewater treatment facility on Upper Water Street rather than flowing into Halifax harbour.
Emergency repairs in one of Quebec City's two wastewater treatment plants have succeeded in stopping the release of untreated sewage into the St. Lawrence River. Some 21,000 cubic metres of raw sewage had been flowing untreated into the river every hour since Saturday night because of a broken valve. Late yesterday, an underwater diver working in the tunnel filled with wastewater managed to make repairs, allowing the treatment plant to resume operating at about 60 per cent capacity. It's expected to be back at full capacity today.
January is typically the busiest month for water main breaks in Calgary, but this week more than usual have occurred. On Thursday, the city's website showed 12 broken water mains, seven of which ruptured Wednesday. "That's abnormal," said Lee Dupras, leader of repair and maintenance for drinking water distribution at the City of Calgary. "I have not seen that many in one day come in since I've been in this [department] of the city."
Rebecca Zagozewski is the executive director of the Saskatchewan First Nations Water Association, a non-profit organization that works to build First Nations’ capacity to take care and control of their own water services. She says recruitment and retention of water treatment plant operators is a “real problem” on Saskatchewan First Nations, largely because they often can’t pay operators competitive wages.
