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.
Tri Nguyen-Quang, an engineering professor whose research includes water quality and management, collected samples of the lake water around the shoreline last week. "I think there is some very harmful substance, chemical substance in the water. But that I don't know yet," Nguyen-Quang said Monday. "So far, just the impression that … something is not normal there."
