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.
As people on Vale Island fled their homes and drove south to escape floodwaters from the Hay River, they left more behind than just their houses. Some left their pets, thinking they could return to collect them. Those plans vanished when water closed off the highway. At a community town hall meeting on Tuesday, Hay River, N.W.T., Mayor Kandis Jameson said the town is aware pets are stranded on the island and they are trying to find a way to rescue them.
Five times over the past 16 years, the Fisher River has spilled its banks at Peguis First Nation. The river channel is so small and the terrain in Manitoba's northern Interlake is so flat, it doesn't take much for floodwaters to spread far and wide across the Anishinaabe and Cree community. Every time there's a flood, the provincial and federal governments respond with some form of help. Depending on the severity of the flood in question, that assistance has included sandbags, pumps, billeting in hotels and even the replacement of dozens of flood-damaged homes.
Ocean energy firm Sustainable Marine today announced it has delivered the first floating in-stream tidal power to Nova Scotia’s grid, successfully harnessing the enormous tidal currents in Canada’s Bay of Fundy. The news marks a significant milestone both for the company and Canada’s broader marine energy ambitions, Sustainable Marine CEO Jason Hayman, said: “Achieving ‘first power’ to the grid from our new platform in Grand Passage signals a real inflection point for our business. It crystalises the journey we’ve been on, following almost a decade of rigorous research, development and testing.”
The Regional District of North Okanagan (RDNO) is alerting customers of Greater Vernon Water (GVW) that the Kalamalka Lake water source has been turned off effective today, Wednesday, May 11. The decision was based on increased turbidity due to rain and spring run-off in the Coldstream Creek watershed. Water will be supplied from the Duteau Creek Water Treatment Plant until turbidity decreases in Kalamalka Lake. Customers who are not normally on the Duteau Creek water source will notice the water is much softer and has a low alkalinity and pH. This may be of interest to those customers who have in-home water treatment systems or aquariums.
Grimsby’s aging downtown water infrastructure is set to be upgraded thanks to funding from two upper levels of government. On April 18, the Town of Grimsby was awarded a $1.9-million grant to replace the water mains, service pipes and fire hydrants on Main and Elm streets. The project will include the replacement of the old cast-iron water pipes with ones made from PVC. The design phase of the program will start in 2023, with construction expected to begin in 2024.
The Hay River has spilled over its banks, and N.W.T. hydrologist Anna Coles says hydrometric gauges installed to measure water levels in the river and its tributaries are showing record high water levels. "The provisional data are showing that we are seeing the highest water levels that those gauges have recorded," said Anna Coles, a hydrologist with the N.W.T. government.
Chile, Argentina and the American West are in the midst of a decade-long, megadrought – the driest conditions those regions have seen in a century. And many areas in Western Canada and the United States are experiencing extreme drought – a once in 20-year event. Drought makes agriculture less productive, reduces crop yields and increases heat-related deaths. It adds to conflict and migration, as marginalized people are dispossessed of their land. In short, it leaves people more vulnerable.
A new art installation is taking aim at Canadians’ reliance on single-use plastics that end up in the world’s water systems. Canadian artist and activist Benjamin Von Wong created the three-storey tall tap. The installation is out front of Ripley’s Aquarium and will spew plastic all over the building’s entrance from May 10 to June 9. This isn’t the tap’s first public appearance. It was on display at the UN’s Nairobi headquarters and was initially commissioned by the Canadian Embassy in Paris.
Délı̨nę is under a boil water advisory as a result of higher than normal turbidity, prompting the N.W.T.'s chief environmental officer to advise all residents to boil drinking water for at least one minute. In a news release Tuesday, the chief environmental health officer said the advisory is precautionary and is a result of muddy water. "There have been no illnesses associated with drinking water reported in the community," the release states.
At first, Rebecca Labillois thought it was just another routine storm roaring across the Bay of Chaleur. "But then the power went out," she says."The water just kept on flooding in, and it flooded all the way up here and up to my house." It was Dec. 6, 2010, and massive waves of water were engulfing the homes along Beach Road and Olympic Drive at Ugpi'ganjig First Nation, also known as Eel River Bar, in northern New Brunswick.
As floodwaters from the Hay River rose in Paradise Gardens Sunday night, a neighbour knocked on the door of Bhreagh Ingarfield and her partner Thomas Whittaker's log home. It was Roger Candow, a longtime river watcher. He told them, "You've got to go now — the water's rushing over the road," recalled Ingarfield. The couple had been watching water levels rise and fall for days, waiting for them to go down like usual. When they bought their house in the fall with the hopes of opening a bed and breakfast, no one could remember flooding ever reaching near the property — not even during the flood of 1963.
People in Iqaluit can drink the tap water again, after being advised Friday the water was unsafe due to a "mechanical failure." That's according to a Monday public service announcement from the City of Iqaluit. No further details were offered on the nature of the mechanical failure that led to the advisory. The advisory was at least the third one this year, coming two months after one that stemmed from repairs to a water valve. Before that, the city issued a boil water advisory in January after it detected fuel in its water supply.
With a highly anticipated spring breakup underway in the Dehcho, residents in Fort Liard and Fort Simpson N.W.T., are seeing rising water. In Fort Liard, water is reaching the main road in the community, falling about 400 meters short from the general store. "It's happening so fast, it seems," said Robert Low, who works at the band office there. He said that some people are currently stranded at the general store and that others are being taken to safety. The ice along the river appeared to be flowing, up until a big sheet of ice came, then Low said: "everything stopped."
A weekend washout has cut the municipality of Red Lake off from the rest of northwestern Ontario. The washout at the Caribou Creek Bridge on Highway 105 occurred on Saturday, with high water flows completely washing away the bridge. "With the quick thaw that we've been having throughout the district, the ground remain frozen still," Red Lake Mayor Fred Mota told CBC News on Monday. "The water cannot seep into the ground, and therefore there's lots of runoff."
The water was quick, unforgiving. In a matter of days, the flooding on Peguis First Nation, believed to be the worst the community in Manitoba's Interlake has ever seen, displaced roughly 1,600 people and ravaged hundreds of homes. Peguis has 3,521 members usually living on reserve and 6,504 off-reserve members. The largest First Nation community in Manitoba is no stranger to flooding — over the last few decades, residents have been chased from their homes by rising waters several times — but that wasn't always the case.
With more rain expected this week, the flood fight in Peguis First Nation is taking on renewed urgency today, with crews working rapidly to build up dikes and sandbagging around homes. Water levels in the community have gone down in recent days, enough so that a tractor trailer was able to make a delivery to the local grocery store. But rain in the forecast has residents worried water levels will rise back up again.
Beautiful spring weather greeted the students at St. Benedict Catholic school May 5 as they performed an Anishinaabe-led ceremonial water walk to raise awareness of the importance and need for protection of water. St. Benedict’s Indigenous support worker and staff member of the school’s Diversity Club, Shannon Agowissa, led students from the school to a water fill station near the Gerry McCroy Countryside Sports Complex. There, they filled a ceremonial copper vessel with water and sang a traditional water song.
Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan say COVID-19 levels in Saskatoon have increased again, signalling that the sixth wave is not over yet. On Monday, head researcher and toxicologist John Giesy released this week's COVID numbers, showing a 44 per cent increase from the previous week. "[This confirms] that the viral load is large in Saskatoon, with the second greatest amount ever observed and approximately the same amount as it was a month before," wrote Giesy.
Severe thunderstorms and summer go hand-in-hand on the Prairies. And it's not your imagination that such weather events have been getting increasingly catastrophic over the past decade. In the prairies, the last few years have been marked by severe storms. Calgary alone has seen hail, funnel clouds and lightning strikes, with downpours that turned roads into rivers and stranded motorists in their cars.
Residents in the northern Alberta community of Chateh, west of High Level, could be out of their homes for several months after flooding forced them to flee on Sunday and Monday. Some 1,100 people left the community on the Dene Tha' First Nation as water in the Sousa Creeks, basin and surrounding waterways continued to rise in the previous few days. Chateh is about 850 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.
