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 municipality of Red Lake is issuing a caution about possible water contamination for people who draw from the lake. The municipality put out an advisory on Tuesday, warning that there has been an overflow of raw sewage into Howey Bay on Red Lake. The notice applies to people who use lake water from the eastern portion of Red Lake from Howey Bay to McNeely Bay, extending east downstream along the Chukuni River, including Keg Lake, Gullrock Lake and Two Island Lake.
Lino Lakes new water tower on the corner of Birch Street and Centerville Road has earned a spot in the top five water towers in the nation. Since 2006, Tnemec has celebrated the innovative and creative uses of its coatings on water tanks with the annual Tank of the Year contest. Each year, tanks of all varieties from across the U.S. and Canada are narrowed down to determine the most impressive coatings projects in the water tank industry. This year, nearly 300 water tanks were nominated from across the U.S. and Canada, each one impressive in its own way. Other top finishers included: Brunswick, Georgia; Edmonton, Kentucky; Elmendorf, Texas; Lincoln, Illinois; Oconomowoc, Wisconsin; Redmond, Washington; the University of Texas at Dallas; Roswell, New Mexico; Zephyrhills, Florida; Rochester, Minnesota; and Moorhead, Minnesota. Construction on Lino Lakes’ newest water tower was completed in July. WSB was the engineer on the project and Landmark Structures was the fabricator. The official Tank of the Year and all of the finalists will be featured in Tnemec's 2022 water tank calendar.
Federal environmental regulators have flagged Benton Harbor’s water system for a host of problems, from inadequate water treatment to a failure to adequately notify residents about high lead levels that have plagued the water system for at least three years. In an order Tuesday, officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told Benton Harbor it must fix a range of Safe Drinking Water Act “violations and deficiencies” identified during a September inspection.
The San Joaquin Valley farm town of Teviston has two wells. One went dry and the other is contaminated. The one functioning well failed just at the start of summer, depriving the hot and dusty hamlet of running water for weeks. With temperatures routinely soaring above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius), farm workers bathed with buckets after laboring in the nearby vineyards and almond orchards.
The UK and other countries announced a new initiative to help small island states, which are arguably the countries most threatened by climate change. Due to rising seas, many may find themselves literally underwater. The new scheme is called the Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS) facility. It will help small island states to build up resilient infrastructure. The UK is contributing £10 million in the initial phase.
Cornwall City Council received a report from EVB Engineering at a special meeting on Monday, Nov. 1 about a potential vulnerability to the city’s water supply and solutions on how to address the problem. The water received at the City of Cornwall’s Water Purification Plant (WPP), located on Second St. W., is taken from the St. Lawrence River through an intake pipe located west of the R.H. Saunders Dam in the city’s west end. That pipe is roughly 65-years-old and is reaching the end of its service life. Even if it were not so old, the fact that the water plant has only one intake pipe was identified as a vulnerability in the system.
Residents who were left out of a class-action lawsuit for water contamination in a small town northwest of Quebec City are finally eligible to receive compensation after drinking water polluted with trichloroethylene (TCE), a carcinogenic degreasing agent, for decades. A panel of judges at Quebec's Court of Appeal unanimously agreed to modify an order made last year for the federal government and two private companies, Valcartier Real Estate Corporation and General Dynamics, to compensate residents affected by the contamination.
The city has a new plan to detect water leaks faster, after the revelation that a quarter of its fresh drinking water never makes it to Hamilton homes. Twenty-six per cent of the treated water destined for local taps, or 19.916 megalitres per year, escapes through broken and leaky pipes, says Dave Alberton, Hamilton's manager of water distribution. That's higher than the provincial average of 15 per cent, he said, and it's expensive and bad for the environment.
The most recent COVID-19 wastewater study from the University of Saskatchewan shows a drop in the amount of COVID-19 virus in sewage samples taken from three cities in the province. On Monday, the Global Institute for Water Security's report showed a decrease of 44 per cent in viral RNA (Ribonucleic acid) in Saskatoon's wastewater samples compared to the previous reporting period.
With many residents of Woodlands County utilizing well water, the municipality hosted a virtual workshop on October 21 on managing wells. The event streamed live and enabled attendees to ask questions in real-time. Multiple specialists were on hand, including Jeff Hammer, a Public Health Inspector for Alberta Health Services. Hammer discussed the importance of testing water and why it’s essential to do so. “We have two types of tests available at the health units. One is a bacteriological bottle which we test for total Coliform and E. coli. Total Coliform is an indicator of bacteria, and E. coli is basically fecal matter which you never want to see. The other type of test we have is a chemical water sample. It does a bunch of minerals and metals and has some more health parameters associated with it.” Hammer said that some of the minerals and metals tested for include manganese, lead, arsenic, and the pH value of the water.
Scientists in Saskatchewan are using ag waste to make clean water. Khaled Benis, a Vanier Scholar and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Saskatchewan’s college of engineering, and his colleagues, have identified how to transform wheat and canola straw into a filter capable of absorbing arsenic from water. Canada produces about 47 million tonnes of ag residue per year. “We make the (crop residue) similar to activated carbon or ion exchange resin that can be used as alternatives to expensive materials. Crop residue is available everywhere and is a sustainable material.” Benis told Farms.com. “We collect the residues and perform physical or chemical treatments to activate the potential to absorb the arsenic.”
There are yellow fish in the Nepahwin Lake watershed, but they’re not in the water. With brushes and stencils in hand, Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School students have painted yellow fish symbols with the words ‘Rain Only’ on area storm drains. It’s all part of Trout Unlimited Canada’s Yellow Fish Road education campaign and a collaborative project by Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School, the Junction Creek Stewardship Committee and the Nepahwin Lake Watershed Stewardship Group, with support from the City of Greater Sudbury Lake Stewardship Grant Program.
A non-profit organization in Salt Spring Island, B.C., dedicated to fighting climate change is encouraging residents to take advantage of the rain this fall by installing a rainwater collection system. Transition Salt Spring (TSS), with the help of the Capital Regional District, piloted the Rainwater Harvesting Rebate program on Oct. 1, which offers homeowners $250 to $500 for installing cisterns to catch and store rainwater on their property.
In 2019, the Quebec government asked public and private educational institutions to analyze the concentration of lead in drinking water using portable devices called "Kemio Heavy Metals." OCQ president, Michel Alsayegh, deplored the use of this type of device, citing "a significant risk of false negatives, which is worrisome for the health of children and staff." "As early as 2019, when we met with the office of the Minister of Education, we had expressed doubts about the reliability of the results with this type of instrument," said Alsayegh in an interview with The Canadian Press.
Thirty-four years ago, the St. Clair River was proclaimed an environmental disaster. Now, environmental and business groups are working to resolve one of the most intractable impairments to the river — restrictions on drinking water consumption or taste and odor problems with the water. Sheri Faust, president of the Friends of the St. Clair River, is hoping that enough progress can be made by 2022 to remove the impairment. On Oct. 19, the Friends hosted a Zoom presentation on the status of drinking water from the river. About 25 people tuned into the mini-conference.
The Alberta government says it has secured all the land it needs to make construction officially a go on a long-awaited reservoir needed to protect Calgary and surrounding communities from disastrous floods — like the one that killed five people and caused billions of dollars in damages in 2013. The $432-million Springbank off-stream reservoir will redirect water from the Elbow River into a dry reservoir should extreme flood events occur. With up to $168.5 million in federal funding, the reservoir will be built on about 1,497 hectares of land near the rural community of Springbank, which is west and upstream of Calgary.
Graphs released last week that show what has contaminated Iqaluit’s drinking water don’t include enough information to be useful, say two University of Toronto professors. Nunavut’s chief medical health officer, Dr. Michael Patterson, presented and interpreted the graphs at an Oct. 22 news conference. They are missing key information, including labelling and actual concentrations for each compound detected, said Miriam Diamond, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Toronto. Diamond is one of two experts Nunatsiaq News asked to help interpret how the data were presented in the graphs.
PyroGenesis Canada Inc said it has been selected to provide a $9.2 million land-based system to destroy perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water. The company said the client is a large operator of public water systems, whose name will remain confidential for competitive reasons. PFAS are a group of man-made chemicals found in countless household items such as electronics, cleaning supplies, and non-stick cookware, which can contribute to harmful human health conditions including cancer and hormone disorders.
Towedo, along with other First Nation chiefs at the ceremony, made reference to the mine being a steward of the land, ensuring it protects water and other natural resources. The mine will relocate tailings from a former tailings site for the McLeod-Mosher and Hardrock Mine. The movement of the tailings is slated to actually improve water quality in neighbouring Kenogamisis Lake, and reduce the amount of arsenic in Barton Bay and the Central Basin.
A new $9.6 million addition to the Melfort water treatment plant is intended to extend the longevity of the regional system, providing redundancy and a 40 to 50 year life span. The original water treatment plant in Melfort was built in 1958 and underwent upgrades in 1972. It was expanded in 1994, shortly after SaskWater purchased the plant. The system supplies water to approximately 9,000 users from the City of Melfort, the Melfort Rural Pipeline Association, the Village of Weldon, the Town of Kinistino, the Village of Beatty, the Town of Star City, Star City Farming, and Wapiti Valley Regional Park as well as several individual rural users.
