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.
Alberta Health Services issued a water quality advisory on Friday for Chestermere Lake because of elevated levels of fecal bacteria. AHS says people should not swim or wade in the water at Anniversary Park Beach, Cove Park Beach or Sunset Park Beach, effective immediately. Contact with the water could result in gastrointestinal illness. Skin, ear and eye infections are also possible. Water-borne organisms, including fecal bacteria, can cause vomiting and diarrhea.
From roads and buildings, to water and wastewater systems, reliable infrastructure is key to building stronger communities. Investments in safer and more efficient wastewater treatment helps keep our communities healthy, green and sustainable. Today, Serge Cormier, Member of Parliament for Acadie—Bathurst, on behalf of the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities; the Honourable Gary Crossman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister responsible for the Regional Development Corporation; Her Worship Kim Chamberlain, Mayor of the City of Bathurst, His Worship Edgar Aubé, Mayor of the Town of Beresford, and His Worship Maxime Lejeune, Mayor of Pointe-Verte, announced joint funding for improvements to water and wastewater infrastructure in three Northeastern New Brunswick communities.
Freshwater scientists and biologists in B.C.'s Cowichan Valley say marine life in the area is thriving this spring, with the combination of heavy rainfall and late spring thaw resulting in higher water levels in rivers and other waterways. "For river levels, generally at this time of year we like to see ... seven to 15 cubic metres per second. This year, we're running about 30," said Tom Rutherford, the executive director of the Cowichan Watershed Board. He said in his 30 years of experience, he's never seen water levels this high.
Referring to US water and wastewater systems as the “weakest link” in the country’s critical infrastructure, water sector leaders on Wednesday urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to focus on better regulating the cybersecurity of these critical services. According to Mark Montgomery, executive director of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission and senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, the EPA only has around $7 million in its annual budget dedicated to water sector cybersecurity, a far cry from the $45 million the Solarium Commission recommended the EPA earmark for the Office of Water. Nextgov.com explains that for the 2023 fiscal year, the EPA is requesting $4 billion for the water sector, and EPA Administrator Michael Regan told Congress that includes $50 million to support resiliency and sustainability initiatives, $25 million to improve cyber capabilities, and $35 million to provide technical assistance.
Representatives from communities impacted by mining projects in Colombia, the Philippines, Nunavut and the “Ring of Fire” region in Northern Ontario protested Monday outside the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s annual conference, a large event that attracts more than 1,000 exhibitors, 2,500 investors and 23,000 attendees. The Mining Injustice Solidarity Network, organizers of the rally, explained that the Ring of Fire is a proposed project covering a 5,000 square kilometre area in Northern Ontario that’s estimated to contain massive quantities of chromite, nickel and copper, among other critical minerals’ needed for the production of electric vehicles and other “green” technologies.
There’s no time like the present for Project Water, a program by the charity Engage and Change. With temperatures expected to feel close to 43 C with humidity on Thursday in the GTA, Project Water founder Jody Steinhauer was busy helping distribute about 700,000 water bottles from the parking lot of her 34-year-old discount wholesale business, Bargains Group, with the precious cargo going to the homeless in more than 200 locations. “How sad is that, that the agencies that were serving don’t have access to drinking water, drinking fountains,” said Steinhauer. “Homelessness is not a downtown Toronto problem — it’s spread everywhere.”
A portion of the Trent-Severn Waterway will be closed starting Friday due to high water levels and flows. Lock 19 - Scotts Mills and Locks 22 through 27, including Lakefield, will be closed until further notice. Parks Canada says the Trent Severn's watersheds have received "significant amounts of precipitation, the equivalent of 100 to 200 per cent above the normal amount." It advises residents and visitors to use "extreme caution" around and on the water.
An oily container confused for a clean one is what left half of Sachs Harbour, N.W.T., without usable tap water for a month this past spring, according to government emails obtained by CBC. On March 23, a do not consume advisory was issued from the territory's chief environmental health officer after the smell of fuel and an oily sheen was found in water deliveries, according to a news release at the time.
One of the municipalities most affected by an oil spill from Algoma Steel on the St. Mary's River does not yet know when it will be able to reopen its water treatment plant. Lynn Watson, mayor of the Township of Macdonald, Meredith and Aberdeen Additional, which includes the village of Echo Bay, said they shut down the water treatment plant's intake last Thursday, as soon as Algoma Steel alerted them of the oil spill.
The threat of flooding in a small N.W.T. community, perched on the bank of the South Nahanni River, is subsiding. After watching the river swell over the past week — quickly at first, and then more slowly — people living in Nahanni Butte noticed water levels drop an inch or two on Tuesday morning. About 24 hours later, Burton Campbell, one of the community's 93 residents, said it had gone down by eight inches.
The United States government, including President Joe Biden's White House, has joined calls for Canada to participate in a probe of cross-border pollution coming from coal mines in southern British Columbia. In a statement released last week, the U.S. State Department said Biden supports a joint investigation of selenium coming from Teck Resources' Elk Valley coal mines, which flows into rivers and lakes south of the border.
The cleanest and safest beaches and marinas in Canada have been named in a new list of locations to earn a Blue Flag in 2022. Twenty-two beaches and 10 marinas have earned a Blue Flag designation, an international award given to community waterfronts that meet high environmental, safety and cleanliness standards. Registered charity Swim Drink Fish has been the Canadian operator for Blue Flag International since 2020. It helps national beaches or marinas interested in receiving the award through encouraging community engagement and management practices.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday released new warnings for synthetic pollutants in drinking water known as "forever chemicals" saying the toxins can still be harmful even at levels so low they are not detectable. The family of toxic chemicals known as per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, have been used for decades in household products such as non-stick cookware, stain- and water-resistant textiles and in firefighting foam and industrial products.
More than 10,000 visitors were ordered out of Yellowstone as unprecedented flooding tore through the northern half of the nation's oldest national park, washing out bridges and roads and sweeping an employee bunkhouse miles downstream, officials said Tuesday. Remarkably, no one was reported injured or killed. The only visitors left in the massive park straddling three states were a dozen campers still making their way out of the backcountry.
The advisory was first issued for the communities on May 12 as flooding in Hay River has affected operation of the town’s water treatment plan and resulted in higher than normal turbidity or muddy water. In a public notice on Tuesday, the territorial government announced residents in the four South Slave communities would no longer have to boil their drinking water as turbidity levels had dropped to acceptable levels in water from the water plant and other operational issues had been addressed.
It was almost fitting, on a soggy Tuesday morning, the Town of Esterhazy celebrated its recent start in constructing a $29.9 million regional water system. The rain didn’t damper the spirits of those in attendance, which included local dignitaries from both the municipal and provincial levels of government. The new water system got the boost it needed with funding from both provincial and federal levels within the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.
The six governments of the Ktunaxa Nation continue to press the federal government on pollution in the Kootenay watershed that crosses the international border between Canada and the United States. Earlier this month, leadership with the six Ktuanxa governments recently met with representatives fro the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Geological Survey on the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho’s reservation lands in Bonner’s Ferry.
Microplastic pollution is usually associated with the ocean where it's been widely studied, but new research shows those tiny particles can be found in the air as well, even in the Yukon. A team of researchers at Yukon University have been monitoring the amount of microplastics being deposited from the atmosphere into the air around Whitehorse over the past two years.
A flood warning was issued for Carmacks, Yukon, Tuesday as the Yukon River continues to rise near the community. "Low lying areas are currently flooding," reads a news release from the Yukon government's Emergency Measures Organization (EMO). The river level rose by 21 cm in the last 24 hours, according to EMO. Part of the rise is because of rain. The weather forecast calls for more rain on Wednesday and then some clearing.
A New Brunswick judge has tossed out a class action lawsuit against the City of Saint John that flowed from alleged damage to homes and appliances caused by leaky pipes. In her decision released on Tuesday, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Tracey DeWare found the city did not breach its standard of care when it switched the water source for about 5,600 west side Saint John customers back in 2017. As a result, she said the city does not owe the complainants for damages they alleged to have suffered as a result.
