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.
The City of Moncton says Jones Lake and the lake at Centennial Park are closed to recreational use until further notice because of high E. coli counts. The city issued a public advisory Wednesday, saying routine testing found high counts of the fecal bacteria. The lakes are closed for swimming, kayaking, canoeing and other recreational activities, and dogs should not be allowed to swim in or drink the water.
Take a dip at Mooney’s Bay or the Petrie Island River Beaches Tuesday but Ottawa Public Health says that swimming is “not recommended” at Petrie Island East Bay and Britannia. Water samples are collected daily from City of Ottawa supervised beaches between mid-June and the end of August and tested for E. coli bacteria. When tests find high levels of E. coli, it’s more likely that other disease-causing organisms are in the water, too, the health unit said.Those organisms can cause skin, ear, throat or gastrointestinal illnesses.
Rodrigo Silva de Paula calls himself a "water man": he spends about 330 days a year in the ocean teaching paddle boarding. But high E. coli levels in some of Vancouver's beaches are testing his patience. "It is frustrating because it is not the first time it has happened," said the 44-year-old who lives in Vancouver. Silva de Paula is one of many residents calling on the city to do more to keep beaches safe from the bacteria.
Last summer, three Metro Vancouver beaches were closed to swimmers after high levels of E. coli were detected in the water. And this is a pretty common occurrence. Almost every year, beaches, lakes, and other water bodies are closed to swimming across Canada because there is fecal matter mixed into the water. Our poop! So how did that poop get there? Well, it's because of something called the combined sewer and stormwater system.
