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 mayor of Princeton, B.C., says half the town is under water after extreme rains pushed the Tulameen and Similkameen rivers to overflow their banks and dikes. "The water level came up so fast that we couldn't get ahead of it. It just kept coming and coming," said Spencer Coyne. "There's a number of [dike] breaches. Houses are under water, cars are gone." Coyne said water levels were about 150 centimetres higher than the previous worst flood in memory, which hit the town in 1995.
The entire city of Merritt, population 7,000, is under an evacuation order after flooding caused the complete failure of the municipality's wastewater treatment plant leading to what city officials are calling an "immediate danger to public health and safety." "Continued habitation of the community without sanitary services presents risk of mass sewage back-up and personal health risk," reads the order issued by the city at 10:05 a.m. PT Monday. "The wastewater treatment plant is inundated and non-operational and will be for an indefinite period of time," said the order, which asked residents to try to make plans to stay with friends or family outside the community, which is located in B.C.'s southern Interior, around 200 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.
When it comes to your teeth, sparkling water isn't always as safe as you might think it is. Some flavours could be hazardous to your oral health. To see which products pose the greatest potential risk to your smile, Marketplace tested a number of Perrier, Bubly and LaCroix sparkling water flavours available on Canadian store shelves to find out which are most acidic.
The construction of the new St. Paul's Hospital and Health Campus in East Vancouver's False Creek is in progress, but the project won't be completed anytime soon as the facility needs to withstand future floods that could come with rising sea levels. According to the senior sustainability specialist with the City of Vancouver, infrastructures around the municipality were built at a time when water levels were predictable and there were no concerns for rising sea levels — so the city is not prepared for what might come in the next 30 years.
It was late September when Adamee Itorcheak, a 56-year-old resident of Iqaluit - the capital of Canada's northernmost and sparsely populated territory of Nunavut - noticed something was wrong with his water. "The kitchen sink was the first indicator," said Mr Itorcheak, recalling a chemical smell coming from the water. Mr Itorcheak, an indigenous Inuk, is one of the approximately 7,700 Iqaluit residents who have been left without potable water for over a month. It took numerous complaints of suspicious odours to get officials to confirm that the city's water supplies were contaminated with fuel. Since a state of emergency was declared on October 12, Iqaluit's residents have been warned that local water supplies are unsafe to drink or cook with. The water was so contaminated that officials warned that it wouldn't be safe even after boiling.
In the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, a public health debate rages. It’s not about vaccines, masks or where people can smoke, though — it’s about fluoride. It’s in our toothpaste and mouthwash, and a common word around dental offices. But in Calgary, it holds a spot in the public consciousness due to decades of advocates on both sides slogging through six plebiscites on whether the city should put fluoride — a mineral found in rocks and dirt — into the water supply to fight tooth decay.
A flowing river that turns to solid ice in October, freezing pipes and frosty arctic temperatures are all routine for Nunavummiut. But those issues were a first for a water treatment system previously used by the Canadian Armed Forces in places, including Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and the Philippines. Iqaluit has been under a state of emergency since Oct. 12 when fuel was found in the water at the city's treatment plant. Residents have not been able to drink tap water since then.
A national farm organization is asking the federal government to pitch in with efforts to move hay from the East Coast to struggling farmers and ranchers in Western Canada. The Canadian Federation of Agriculture is seeking financial support for its Hay West initiative, which aims to ship donated hay from Maritime farmers to drought-affected Prairie provinces.
Canada's new minister of Indigenous services says she's considering what the new timeline should be to lift remaining long-term drinking-water advisories on First Nations. Patty Hajdu enters the role with 43 advisories still in place in 31 different communities mostly in Ontario, but also in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to end all drinking-water advisories by 2021 when the Liberals were swept to power in 2015.
At the beginning of this semester, Gordon’s students have turned their attention to water issues within Canada. Half of the class’s fundraising efforts will go towards Canadian charity Water First, which works exclusively with Indigenous communities in the country. The other half will go towards field trips for the students. “Their goal is to help address water issues and prevent water advisories such as boil water advisories,” Gordon said. “They fund and operate an internship program to work with young Indigenous people to train them to become certified water treatment plant operators, and also help fund water restoration projects in Indigenous communities.” She added the NGO also works with schools in Indigenous communities to offer programs that help school-age children learn about water conservation and restoration.
A Liberal opposition bill to eliminate well-water testing fees on P.E.I. passed its third reading in the legislature Nov. 4 and could come into effect early next year. Liberal MLA Hal Perry, who introduced the bill, first started working on it in early 2020. "It's about safe drinking water for Islanders who live in rural communities," said Perry.
A riverfront property owner says he's been left with thousands of dollars in cement blocks with nowhere to put them. That's after P.E.I.'s Environment Department denied his proposal to have shoreline protection installed, citing concerns it would have a "detrimental effect" on a salt marsh at the corner of his property. "All I'm doing is trying to protect my property," said Mark Keizer, who lives with his wife along the Hillsborough River in Mermaid, with a view toward Charlottetown Harbour.
The extreme drought across the Canadian Prairies over the past year is expected to leave Manitoba Hydro with a deficit in the $200-million range for the current fiscal year. The Crown corporation disclosed low river levels will deprive the utility of about $400 million in export revenue over the coming months. This will leave Manitoba Hydro with a deficit between $190 million and $200 million for the 2021-22 fiscal year, the corporation disclosed after publishing its second-quarter financial report.
Castor town council discussed increasing water bills with the goal of helping their water department break even. The discussion was held during the Nov. 8 regular meeting of council. The discussion began when Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Christopher Robblee gave the regular gas/water report. The CAO stated the water balance was still high for September but there was some good news for councillors: the water loss in October was only 900 metres cubed, which was down “substantially” from the month before.
The Canadian Armed Forces is now providing potable water in Iqaluit amid its ongoing water contamination crisis. The city has been under a state of emergency since Oct. 12, when staff confirmed evidence of fuel contamination in the city's treated water supply. Residents were told the water is unsafe to drink, even if filtered or boiled. The CAF is using mobile water treatment units to treat water from the Sylvia Grinnell River using reverse osmosis. It then transfers potable water to a designated city water truck that carries it to water filling depots at the Arctic Winter Games and the library parking lots.
As Iqaluit’s drinking water crisis carries on toward a full month, there’s still much unknown about a historical fuel spill detected near the water treatment plant in late October. What is clear is that the Qulliq Energy Corporation’s Iqaluit power plant stands near the city’s water treatment plant, and the power generation site has experienced numerous toxic spills over decades.
On Aug. 11, 2021, Jessica Reznicek self-reported to a U.S. federal prison to begin her eight-year sentence. Her crime? One count of conspiracy to damage an energy facility (to which Jessica had pleaded guilty), plus a domestic terrorism charge added by the judge during Jessica's sentencing to deter others from taking similar actions. You may not have heard of Jessica. I hadn't, until I saw a petition asking President Joe Biden and the U.S. Congress to repeal her terrorism charge. It was the petition's title that really caught my attention: "Protecting Water is Never Terrorism."
Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax, told CTV's Your Morning on Tuesday that avocado production is linked to a loss of biodiversity, water shortages and deforestation. According to the Water Footprint Network, a single avocado requires nearly 230 litres of water to grow, compared to an orange that needs about 50 litres, or a tomato that requires 13 litres.
At the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland last week, world leaders announced that water stewardship and climate action must be coordinated to stop the deterioration of the natural environment, which means caring for our local water sources is essential. Columbia Basin lakes could arguably be considered the heart of many communities. Lakes provide clean drinking water, endless recreational options for tourism, and economic value through lake foreshore property values. Lakes and their surrounding foreshore are also highly sensitive to climate and respond rapidly to change.
A Canadian mining company is responsible for selenium pollution entering North Idaho waters. Teck Resources is a mining company in British Columbia. Waste rock from four of their mines have been leaching selenium into the Kootenai River Watershed since the early 1980s. Selenium is toxic at high levels. Since 2017, the population of westslope cutthroat trout in this watershed has decreased by 93% because of selenium pollution.
