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.
Without careful coordination for flood risk management throughout the water year, the Columbia River would have hit a stage of 25 feet at Vancouver in June, a height not seen in the river in springtime since 1956. That level would be considered ‘major flood stage’, as determined by the National Weather Service. Evidence of the same storm’s power was seen further south in the damaging flooding along the Yellowstone River in northern Wyoming.
