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 completion of the new Rose Valley Water Treatment Plant project is creeping closer. The City of West Kelowna has initiated the project's final phase — constructing 3.7 kilometres of water transmission mains that will connect residents on the West Kelowna Estates and Sunnyside/Pritchard water systems to the new Rose Valley Water Service Area.
Delivery of safe and high-quality drinking water is an essential public service, but it’s not easy to monitor water quality in real-time close to customers’ homes. Thanks to a new research partnership with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, TELUS and the Regional District of North Okanagan, researchers at UBC’s Okanagan campus will begin to address this gap by leveraging new sensors to wirelessly monitor water quality in the distribution system.
“Canada’s Food Guide supports making healthier food and beverage choices and recommends water to drink. This campaign can help remind people to make healthy beverage choices for themselves and their families whenever possible. Our department is committed to creating more supportive environments for healthy eating in community, recreation and sport settings, in school and childcare, as well as at home. This is an important part of achieving better health outcomes in Newfoundland and Labrador.” Honourable Tom Osborne Minister of Health and Community Services
Residents of Katrine are hopeful a public meeting with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) will shed light on why water levels at Doe Lake are higher than water levels at nearby lakes. Adam Wakefiled, the MNRF's district manager for the Parry Sound District, will be at the Katrine Community Centre answering the public's questions on Aug. 18.
Primo Water Corporation (NYSE: PRMW) (TSX: PRMW) (the "Company" or "Primo"), a leading provider of sustainable drinking water solutions in North America and Europe, today announced its results for the second quarter ended July 2, 2022. (Unless stated otherwise, all second quarter 2022 comparisons are relative to the second quarter of 2021; all information is in U.S. dollars.)
Halifax Regional Municipality is warning people to avoid swimming at Cunard Lake Beach in Halifax due to a possible blue-green algae bloom. Blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, are microscopic bacteria that live in surface water like lakes, ponds, rivers and streams that can be dangerous to people and pets. The organisms can multiply rapidly during the hot summer months and may release toxins into the water when the blooms die.
Durham Region says the local water supply remains safe to drink despite “possible earthy or musty odours detected recently.” The region said in a post Thursday that changes to the smell or taste of the water typically occurs in the late summer or early fall, when Lake Ontario temperatures are higher. “Taste and odour episodes are caused by seasonal biological changes in Lake Ontario,” the region said.
Sandy and Doug Hall have been watching their shoreline along the Belleisle Bay slowly disappear over time. The couple was quick to volunteer for a project aiming to mitigate erosion by planting 1,500 native trees and shrubs on private property throughout the Belleisle watershed in southern New Brunswick. "Because of the flooding that happens every spring, our beach is being taken away, so we were quite interested in what we could do to help preserve it," Sandy said.
After new reports of polio cases abroad, and virus samples in the wastewater of several other developed countries, Canada intends to start testing wastewater from a number of cities "as soon as possible," CBC News has learned. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) already works to monitor polio activity around the world, a spokesperson said in an email response to CBC News questions.
Hamilton public health is warning residents to avoid all contact with water near Pier 4 in the city's harbour after discovering a toxic blue-green algae. In a media release Wednesday, officials suggested the following tips to avoid potential health risks: Avoid all contact with the water at the beach. If you do come into contact with water, rinse off as soon as possible with clean water. Both people and pets should not swim or wade in the water anywhere the algae is visible. The algae, also known as cyanobacteria, forms in shallow, warm, slow-moving water, according to public health.
Almost three weeks after municipal authorities of a small northeastern B.C. community announced that a local water treatment plant had stopped working, hundreds of residents have been asked not to drink tap water or use it in cooking. On Tuesday, the District of Hudson's Hope — about 86 kilometres west of Fort St. John, home to more than 800 people — and the Northern Health Authority issued a "do not consume" order for potable water that the district processes and distributes.
University of Lethbridge researchers will study the Frank Lake wetlands in High river to better understand the impacts of land use on the health of the Little Bow watershed. The project is funded by Cargill Limited and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Alliance program. With total funds of $1.5 million, the team will embark on a five-year project.
The Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) has closed Lake Echo Beach for swimming after confirming high levels of bacteria in the water. In a news release, HRM said a recent test shows bacteria levels at the beach exceed Health Canada’s swimming guidelines. The beach is closed for swimming until further notice. However, HRM staff will continue testing the water until bacteria levels return to safe levels and will notify the public.
Montreal public health officials are investigating three cases of legionellosis, known as Legionnaires' Disease, including one death. The Montreal Regional Public Health Department said Wednesday the three cases were reported in the Anjou and Mercier West areas between July 29 and Aug. 8. One of the three people, a man, died from complications of the disease.
A judge has barred a group from spraying a chemical in the Miramichi Lake area until a lawsuit filed by local cottage owners can be heard. Spraying of rotenone, a pesticide and piscicide, was scheduled Wednesday to eradicate invasive smallmouth bass, according to court documents. On Tuesday, Justice Terrence Morrison made an order preventing any spraying until the lawsuit objecting to it is heard on Aug. 17.
Individuals posing as City of Toronto staff have attempted to enter homes and gather personal information, the City warned Wednesday. In posts on Twitter, the City said it has been notified that people are posing as Toronto Water staff. The post noted that staff are currently conducting testing in the sewer system to identify defects. But officials said staff don’t need to enter homes to do the work and would never ask for personal information.
With political momentum building for a liquefied natural gas export terminal in Atlantic Canada, a new coalition of environmentalists is calling on Ottawa to hit the brakes. The new group Stop the Gas includes veterans of the battle over shale gas development in New Brunswick a decade ago. Jim Emberger of the New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance says the new push for LNG exports is about governments and gas companies trying to wring maximum profits out of an energy source destined to decline because of tougher climate change policies.
Canada has joined much of the rest of the world in adopting a United Nations resolution recognizing that a healthy environment is a human right. But a bill making its way through Parliament to codify this right into law may need to change to be truly effective. While Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault has promoted the resolution’s “principles” as being in line with the bill, a Canadian UN special rapporteur has said the legislation “should be strengthened” and noted it is not consistent with the approach taken by the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly.
A UBC expert on PFAS — also known as forever chemicals — has applied to do research on how much of the toxic substances lurk in B.C.’s drinking water. Exposure to the chemicals, which are widely used in rain gear and non-stick cookware, have been shown to have a wide range of health impacts, including immune suppression, cancer, and cardiovascular disease, said Rachel Scholes, an assistant professor in UBC’s department of civil engineering.
Canada Nickel Company Inc. has announced it will submit its Crawford Nickel Project north of Timmins, Ont. to the federal Impact Assessment permitting process. The decision follows the acceptance by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada of the company’s Initial Project Description of the project, stated a release. The Crawford project is expected to be among the top five largest nickel sulphide operations in the world, supplying nickel to manufacturers of stainless steel and electric vehicle batteries. The process would involve open pit mining at a site 42 kilometres north of Timmins in the Timmins-Cochrane Mining Camp of northeastern Ontario.
