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.
Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan have published the latest wastewater data, revealing a drop of viral load in the wastewater of several Saskatchewan cities. Scientists from the university's Global Institute for Water Security continue to monitor wastewater from Saskatoon, North Battleford and Prince Albert for the viral RNA load of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The Canada Reads 2022 theme, "One Book to Connect Us," was at the heart of the first round of debates as the five champions talked about the contending books. Forest ecologist and author Suzanne Simard is defending Life in the City of Dirty Water by Clayton Thomas-Müller. The Cree activist tells his life story in this debut memoir, from facing the effects of intergenerational trauma as the son of residential school survivors to becoming a committed leader in the environmental movement. Along the way, Thomas-Müller remained tied to his Cree heritage and spirituality to create a vision of healing within oneself and with the Earth.
Climate change will profoundly affect our water supply as summers grow hotter and winters shorter. While precipitation is predicted to increase overall, so will the duration and severity of droughts. The good news is that over the last century our ability to deal with drought conditions has improved. Crop types, tillage, even the timing of fertilizers can help plants get the moisture they need.
A Welsh company plans to test a wind-powered machine in Nunavut next winter that, if successful, will thicken sea ice as part of an effort to keep it around longer. "What we can do then is, hopefully, mitigate some climate change through the use of the machines and build up the ice and, therefore, actually protect the Arctic habitat and restore the ecosystem up here," said Cían Sherwin, CEO of Real Ice, based in Gaerwen, Wales.
Wastewater testing for the virus that causes COVID-19 reveals a mixed picture of the way the disease may have been circulating in Winnipeg earlier in March. The Public Health Agency of Canada analyzes samples of Winnipeg wasterwater near the city's three sewage treatment plants. The federal agency determines the relative volume of the virus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, and also tests the virus to see which virus variants are dominant.
Hollywood couple Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively donated $500,000 to a Canadian Indigenous clean drinking water initiative, buoying efforts by a group of University of Alberta (U of A) graduate students. The Student Advocates for Public Health (SAPH), a group of U of A grad students, hosted a media availability last week calling for clean drinking water for all Indigenous communities throughout the country. During the media availability, Randal Bell, a member of SAPH, said 43 per cent of all First Nations drinking water systems in Canada are currently labeled as medium to high risk of contamination, with 36 long-term drinking water advisories in effect as of March 14. The goal of the event was to bring awareness to the situation and Bell said seeing high-profile people step up with donations means a lot.
Time may be expiring on the Columbia River Treaty but a stream of issues to continue workability between Canada and the U.S. won’t be water under the bridge just yet. Sixty years of Assured Flood Control is set to expire in 2024 but the two countries have been in talks to modernize the historical transboundary agreement since May 2018, covering a range of topics over the course of 10 rounds of meetings.
The City of Ottawa has plans to stop selling water in plastic bottles on city property by the end of June. In a memo being presented this week at the community and protective services committee, city staff say they are working with Coca-Cola to replace their bottled water in city vending machines with other Coca-Cola products. Due to contact obligations, it would cost the city $574,000 to simply remove all Coca-Cola products from the machines outright. That's because contract includes a binding minimum value commitment (MVC) that remains in place until 115,000 cases of drinks have been sold.
Hundreds of people including military personnel, who are eligible for compensation from the federal government and two private companies in a multimillion dollar contaminated water case in Shannon Que. are running out of time to take part in the class action. Claimants have until July 10 to come forward, but so far, only 1,250 people out of 5,000 who are eligible have filed a claim with the firm Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, which is administering the class action.
Manitoba's flood forecaster has downgraded the province's risk of a major flood due to the slow spring melt for the second time in two weeks. The weather the past two weeks has been "very favourable," with no major precipitation and temperatures near 0 C, and it's expected to remain that way into the first week of April, said Fisaha Unduche, executive director of hydrologic forecasting and water management with Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure.
Sage Hartmann, a fifth-year McMaster University science student from Red River Métis Nation in Manitoba, is out to centre Indigenous perspectives within the school's Faculty of Science, something she says there is desire for but not yet enough action on. "There seems to be a lot of desire for the integration of Indigenous [knowledge]," she said. "[But] there doesn't seem to be any Indigenous representation or folks knowing how to do so."
Although Canada is home to 20 per cent of the world’s freshwater supply, there are still long-term advisories in effect here for 29 communities that do not have access to clean drinking water. Alarmingly, two-thirds of these long-term advisories affect Indigenous communities, including those in southern Ontario where clean water is plentiful in neighbouring towns and cities. Climate change and extreme events are exacerbating water quality degradation in lakes and rivers. The latest report from the UN’s climate panel highlights the disproportionate impact our warming planet has on marginalized communities. A lack of resilient infrastructure means communities are further affected; prioritizing better connections between water systems and people is essential to achieving equitable and safe access to clean water.
Vancouver Coastal Health says testing of the drinking water at a school in Powell River, B.C., has found levels of arsenic above the maximum acceptable concentration for consumption. The health authority says routine testing of the water supply at Kelly Creek Community School had demonstrated safe levels until now. Because the arsenic was found early, it says medical health officers have assessed the risk to students and staff as very low.
Waste water data has become a valuable asset in determining the level of COVID-19 within a community and in London, it shows an increase. The January surge of Omicron quickly dissipated in February, but COVID cases have seen an increase in the last few weeks based on data from waste water testing data. “You don't want to look at one sample in isolation, you want to look at sort of the trend. And what I've noticed is if I look at the month of February versus the month of March, we're around three times higher,” said Chris DeGroot, an assistant professor at Western University.
People in Sachs Harbour, N.W.T., are being told not to consume water from their homes — even if it's boiled — if it was delivered since Monday March 21, 2022. The do not consume advisory came from the territory's chief environmental health officer after the smell of fuel and an oily sheen was found in recent water deliveries, according to a press release Wednesday afternoon.
Surveillance of wastewater data is suggesting that COVID-19 cases are on the rise again in Canada as provinces have eased public health restrictions. The resurgence is taking place in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and parts of British Columbia, according to an analysis by Global News. “The reality is that as all of the restrictions come off in terms of masking and the other measures which have been in place for some period of time, we can expect that more cases are going to be out there,” said Dr. Steve Hrudey, chair of the research advisory group of the Canadian Water Network COVID 19 Wastewater Coalition. “The next few days to weeks are going to be important to watch,” he said.
According to a new market research report titled, "Water and Wastewater Treatment Market by Type (Water Treatment, Wastewater Treatment), Offering, Application (Municipal, Industrial), and Geography — Global Forecast to 2032," published by Meticulous Research®, the water and wastewater treatment market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.4% from 2022–2032 to reach $956.48 billion by 2032.
Increased runoff is expected to continue due to warmer temperatures, melting snow, and forecasted rainfall. The increased water levels and flows resulting from last weeks warmer temperatures are expected to continue across the SNC jurisdiction. Ice breakup has also begun throughout the jurisdiction and is expected to continue.
A group of fifteen insurance companies in the P&C space have banded together with environmental non-profit Ducks Unlimited Canada to launch The Nature Force – a climate resilience initiative aimed at focusing insurers’ investments into natural infrastructure solutions to mitigate flood risk. According to a joint statement by members of The Nature Force, nature-based solutions such as the development of wetland systems can lead to positive outcomes including increased climate resilience, biodiversity and water quality.
Alberta's auditor general says the province's lack of oversight into the use and sale of pesticides could be putting people's health and the environment at risk. In a report released Tuesday, Auditor General Doug Wylie found people and businesses may have sold 80 products in 2018 that were illegal in Canada and that inspectors aren't checking whether the people applying pesticides are properly certified.
