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.
For years, Andrew Murray would see the small schools of goldfish living in the storm pond near his home in suburban London, Ont. He never thought much of them until this spring, on a sunny day in April when the normally greenish pond had an unusual, if not slightly orange tinge. An avid nature photographer, he captured a few close-ups. It wasn't until he got home and looked at the pictures that he realized how many goldfish must be swimming around in there.
Canada might be a water-rich country, but that doesn't mean we don't have problems with water security. This week, we look at water issues in the most arid part of Canada, the Prairies, and see how climate change and city planning are both exacerbating the problem. Did you know during a recent storm the City of Winnipeg released 60 million litres of raw sewage into the Red River? Did you know the City of Morden, Manitoba almost ran out of potable water during the extreme drought last summer?
Husky Oil has been fined $600,000 for releasing a harmful substance into a river in Saskatchewan. The Calgary-based oil and gas producer pleaded guilty Friday in provincial court to depositing the substance into a waterway full of fish. The charge came after the release almost four years ago of about 2.8 million litres of process water, a byproduct of oil and gas production and typically high in salt content.
Former UCalgary student group and now a nationally registered non-profit organization, Water Movement organized and hosted the inaugural National Indigenous Water Operator Day (NIWOD) on March 21. NIWOD is recognized on March 21, a day before World Water Day, and acknowledges those who treat and bring clean water to Indigenous communities. Water Movement, created by UCalgary students Bita Malekian, Amrita Nag, Kondwani Asefa and Anita Malekian, was awarded third place and a prize of $7,500 at Western University’s World's Challenge Challenge (WCC) global final in 2021 after pitching their unique idea at the UCalgary WCC competition.
In early October 2021, residents of Iqaluit, Nunavut began to notice a foul taste and smell coming from the tap water. Typically, the water in Iqaluit is safe to drink. At first, reports were limited to a community Facebook group, but eventually an official complaint was made to the City of Iqaluit. The initial testing of the city’s water supply found no evidence of fuel or other contaminants. Residents were reassured by the mayor that the water was safe to drink. This news received mixed reactions, with some residents being reassured and others not convinced. Complaints and worries continued to be shared on the community Facebook group.
As southern Manitoba saw a deluge of rain this weekend that forced people in several communities from their homes due to flooding, the province said the region saw four to six times the normal amount of precipitation this spring. Southern and southeastern Manitoba, along with the portion of the Red River basin in the United States, have received 120 to 160 millimetres of snow and rain since April 1 — which is between 400 to 600 per cent of normal, the province said in a flood bulletin on Sunday evening. The same region received a basin-wide average of 40 to 50 millimetres of rainfall over the past 48 hours alone, according to the province.
Lawn watering restrictions are in effect starting Sunday in Metro Vancouver, with properties only allowed to water their lawns once a week until October. The restriction is part of the region's annual drinking water conservation plans, with the regional government saying water use spikes by 50 per cent during the summer — largely due to lawn watering. The day on which property owners can water their lawns is determined by their property number — even-numbered and odd-numbered properties have designated days.
A half-century of dirty water is in the past for Cape Breton’s smallest Mi’kmaw community, but the fear and distrust remain, keeping some residents from drinking the water. A half-century of dirty water is in the past for Cape Breton’s smallest Mi’kmaw community, but the fear and distrust remain, keeping some residents from drinking the water. “I know a lot of people still don’t trust it – they’re still scared of it, and I don’t blame them. It’s been since 1972, 1974 that we’ve had ongoing problems with the water,” said long-time Potlotek chief, Wilbert Marshall. A new, state-of-the-art water treatment facility was built in 2019 aimed at eliminating the issues with excess iron and magnesium in the water supply.
Steve Donald has one word to sum up the current condition of his southeast Saskatchewan farmyard: "Muck." The 42-year-old grain and cattle farmer near Moosomin, Sask. — just over 200 kilometres east of Regina — says repeated spring snowstorms have delayed seeding on his land. But he's optimistic the extra moisture will provide adequate feed and water for his cattle, and better growing conditions.
Rabat - Morocco and Canada will organize a joint event to discuss the dynamic role of the North African country in advancing sustainable development in Africa with a focus on water governance practices. “To celebrate 60 years of diplomatic relations between Morocco and Canada, @uOttawa in collaboration with @MoroccoOttawa [embassy] are organizing a scientific day on Tuesday, May 10, 2022,” the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) tweeted on Friday.
A state of local emergency has been declared in the southern Manitoba city of Morden as rising water levels forced dozens of people from their homes, the city's mayor says. Brandon Burley said so far, about 50 residences have been affected, but that number is expected to rise amid a rainfall warning in place for much of the southern half of the province. Flood crews are keeping a close eye on the area's watershed, which was already high after significant rainfall last weekend. That rain melted accumulations of snow from a storm last month.
“The river is very important to the Piikani Nation,” Piikani Nation Councilor, Riel Houle said. “We understand the downstream impacts of farmers and other people who need access to the water but (we also) get very protective of our river. It’s sacred to us.” Houle says the act of defiance was carefully considered. Twenty years after a water rights agreement was signed between the Piikani and the federal and provincial governments, Houle says a lot has changed. For one, the diversion weir on Piikani land is aging and planning for new infrastructure is underway.
Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir in the U.S., is drying up. The situation is critical: if water levels at the lake were to drop another 32 feet, all hydroelectricity production would be halted at the reservoir's Glen Canyon Dam. The U.S. West's climate change-induced water crisis is now triggering a potential energy crisis for millions of people in the Southwest who rely on the dam as a power source. Over the past several years, the Glen Canyon Dam has lost about 16 percent of its capacity to generate power. The water levels at Lake Powell have dropped around 100 feet in the last three years.
Under the Investing in Canada Plan, the federal government is investing more than $180 billion over 12 years in public transit projects, green infrastructure, social infrastructure, trade and transportation routes, and Canada’s rural and northern communities. Infrastructure Canada helps address complex challenges that Canadians face every day—ranging from the rapid growth of our cities, to climate change, and environmental threats to our water and land.
John Giesy helps run a level two biosafety lab at the University of Saskatchewan. “Level four would be where you’re working with things like anthrax, and everyone is in hazmat suits,” the toxicologist and environmental chemist explains. At the Saskatoon biolab, people sit before fume hoods, “where we vent things and filter things, so we’re not releasing anything to the environment, and our people aren’t exposed.” One of the things they’re filtering is wastewater, searching for signals of SARS-CoV-2 from human stool.
Residents of some First Nations affected by unsafe drinking water can now file claims under a settlement with the federal government, but the chief of one northwestern Ontario community says they don't support the arrangement. "I just want to say that I'm not in agreement with the settlement," said Roy Moonias, a member of Neskantaga First Nation, which has been under a drinking-water advisory for nearly three decades. "I heard the community say the same thing. They're not in agreement."
It came as a major shock when the executive of St. James Anglican Church in Bridgetown, N.S., got their most recent water and sewer bill from the Municipality of Annapolis. The three-month bill came to a whopping $5,485.31. The church was closed due to COVID-19 from Dec. 21 until early February, according to David Skidmore, the chair of the church's property committee. During that time, a pipe froze and broke, leaking water into the basement.
The water has receded and fans are blowing around the clock in Christina Beeusaert's East St. Paul basement. Her belongings are stacked to the ceiling and like many Manitobans, she is waiting to learn just how much the water damage will cost her. "It depends, once they start ripping the other room apart, how much water damage there is behind the walls and that," she told CBC News.
A school and a community centre in Regina were flooded because of a water pipe break Wednesday. École Monseigneur de Laval and the Association Canadienne-Française de Regina (ACFR) were left waterlogged, and the school closed Wednesday. On Thursday, students had to learn online. "At 10 p.m., the school floors were dried and cleaned in the hallways, gyms and classrooms," a Facebook post from the school reads. It has been translated from French.
The head of a federal infrastructure agency says a new set of investing orders from the Liberal government should make it simpler to deploy more funding in the coming months. The recent federal budget added to the Canada Infrastructure Bank's plate by requiring it to now spend public dollars on private sector-led projects like small modular reactors, clean fuel production, and carbon capture and storage.
