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 City of Abbotsford is getting funding help from the B.C. government to bolster its drinking water system against floods, wildfires and other climate-related disasters. Municipal Affairs Minister Nathan Cullen said Wednesday the $62 million in government funds will support a new well and water-treatment system to serve more than 165,000 people in Abbotsford, Mission and the Matsqui First Nation.
Tribe Property Technologies Inc. ( TSXV: TRBE) (OTCQB: TRPTF) ("Tribe" or the "Company") has partnered with Hytec Water Management Ltd ("Hytec"), to better equip residential communities against pin hole leaks and water corrosion of a building's overall plumbing system. "Building health can be impacted by leaks due to water corrosion," explains Tribe CEO Joseph Nakhla. "What we want to do, is help our communities better prepare or deal with challenges that can impact their building and their home. Our partnership with Hytec can not only help maintain the building's plumbing but can also assist management in the overall operation of the property."
A coalition on climate adaptation and disaster resilience says air conditioning should become a human right on par with winter heating because climate change is increasing the risks of extreme heat waves across Canada. The recommendation is among a list of hard targets and goals Climate Proof says the federal government needs to include this fall in its national adaptation strategy.
The Junction Creek Stewardship committee is working with landowners along the waterway to help restore shoreline habitat. The effort is part of the Watersheds Canada Natural Edge Program. "When the soil and the sediment erodes into the creek, we have a lot of sediment build up which raises water levels it degrades the quality of there water," said Jessica Damaren, an environmental biologist with the committee.
If you have an interest in water sustainability issues including drinking water and sanitation, water governance, and international climate issues, this speaker series is for you! The United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) and was named the UNAI Hub for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: Clean Water and Sanitization, in 2018. Starting September 19th, the UM UNAI Hub will be hosting six virtual presentations from various UM researchers.
Heavy rainfall flushed underpasses with up to a metre of water, caused sewers to overflow and inundated basements and at least one Metro station in southern Quebec Tuesday evening. In Montreal, city workers closed a number of roadways due to flooding and sewer overflow. Some cars were even stuck in flooded underpasses, but no injuries were reported. The events were peppered throughout the city, though not widespread, authorities said.
The Town of Antigonish, N.S., is ordering all town and area water utility customers to begin conserving water. The order came into effect Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. and will remain until water levels at the James River Dam return to normal. The town's chief administrative officer Jeff Lawrence told CBC's Maritime Noon the water behind the dam is one metre below spilling.
The Dauphin City Council met for their first meeting in over a month tonight. City Manager Sharla Griffiths spoke about a trip that three city employees took with Parks Canada, to the site of Edwards Lake and Edwards Creek, where the City of Dauphin gets its water. Griffiths says the city has been using the water source for over 90 years, and since the formation of Riding Mountain National Park has been working with Parks Canada on the project. The City and Parks Canada are currently working on a new agreement about the use of the water, as the original agreement has expired.
Winnipeg mayoral candidate Rana Bokhari says she will start testing the city’s water for asbestos if elected mayor this fall. Bokhari would also lobby the federal government to include Winnipeg’s water pipe system in their upcoming infrastructure review. “We have not tested Winnipeg’s water for asbestos fibres since 1995,” Bokhari said in a Monday news release. “As research into the issue of asbestos in water pipes and the possibly detrimental effect on human health has continued for the past 30 years, it’s become increasingly obvious that we are ignoring a major potential health hazard in our water system.”
After years of protest, a pesticide has been released in the Miramichi watershed as part of a project to eradicate the invasive smallmouth bass. Salmon conservation groups confirm Sept. 8 marked the first application of Noxfish II, a chemical that includes rotenone. It was released in Lake Brook and approximately 15 kilometres of the Southwest Miramichi River.
The First Nation has long been among the most vocal critics of plans to build a proposed road that would connect the Ring of Fire mineral deposit to the highway networks and manufacturing might of Ontario’s south. Now, they’re working to start a sturgeon stewardship program in an effort to protect the fish from proposed development. Even with the most optimistic of estimates, shovels for the proposed Ring of Fire project are years away from going into the ground, but people in Neskantaga First Nation feel a growing sense of urgency.
University of Waterloo is leading an interdisciplinary team to identify and treat per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) - better known as forever chemicals – in water systems affecting more than 2.5 million Canadians. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) is providing the funding to detect, identify and treat PFAS-contaminated water, the university said in a media release.
A major leak in Whitehorse's sewage system was repaired mid last week, but the extent of the procedure's environmental impacts are still unknown. The Marwell Lift Station, which acts as a conduit for the majority of the city's wastewater and sewage, was recently closed for a week to allow crews to investigate and fix the leaking pipe. During that time, the city opted to temporarily include bypass valves to dump a large volume of raw sewage into the Yukon River.
Chances are high that you saw it over the summer at your favourite lake: thick scum on the water’s surface, often resembling pea soup. Blue-green algae (also called cyanobacteria) can render water unsafe for swimming and often makes people, pets, livestock, and wildlife sick. In July, Nova Scotia listed 26 waterways suspected to have blue-green algae blooms. Officials with Alberta Health Services identified blue-green algae in areas of Camp Lake, east of Edmonton, and Haunted Lake (an ironic name for a place fouled by the sinister sludge), east of Red Deer. The Saskatchewan Health Authority issued a blue-green algae warning for Little Manitou Lake, southeast of Saskatoon. British Columbia’s Capital Regional District saw toxic algae blooms in three different lakes across two regional parks in August.
The government of Newfoundland and Labrador is relaxing its relocation assistance requirements for residents of Mud Lake who want to move over fears of future flooding. The central Labrador community was hit hard in 2017 when flooding of the Churchill River destroyed properties and forced people from their homes. Some blamed the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project for the flood — a class-action suit making its way through the court system is seeking damages from Crown corporation Nalcor Energy — but an independent report in 2017 determined natural causes were likely to blame, concluding that ice blocked the river's mouth, forcing water over the banks.
The annual pumpkin regatta in Windsor, N.S., that transforms giant gourds into personal vegetable crafts to be raced across a man-made lake has been cancelled indefinitely. Organizers of the Windsor-West Hants Pumpkin Festival made the announcement on Wednesday, citing a lack of water in the lake as the reason for the cancellation. "Lake Pisquid is dry right now and we haven't had a full regatta since 2018, so it just felt, in consultation with our committee, that the timing was right," Vanessa Roberts, the long-time logistics coordinator for the regatta, told Mainstreet from CBC Halifax.
British Columbia's energy regulator is rationing the water supply for some oil and gas companies because of drought in the northeastern part of the province. On Thursday, the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission (BCOGC) suspended 20 water permits for 12 energy companies that draw water from rivers, streams and lakes in the Peace River and Liard River watersheds, in the Fort St. John and Fort Nelson areas.
The Nova Scotia government has not notified some landowners of potential contamination on their properties from historical gold mines, despite being required to do so by provincial regulations. Gold mines that operated in Nova Scotia dating back to the 1800s left a legacy of contamination, most notably from arsenic and mercury. In many cases, the original source of the contamination is on one property, but the material flowed — often through water — to surrounding properties over time.
The Water Environment Federation (WEF) has announced the winners of its annual Operational and Design Excellence Awards competition, demonstrating excellence in operations and design, which contribute to the advancement of the water environment industry. The Industrial Water Quality Achievement Award was presented to Bush Beans Process Water Reclamation Facility located in the Great Smoky Mountains, about 40 miles from Knoxville, Tenn. Designed and built by a joint venture of Brown and Caldwell and Haskell Company, the 2.1 million gallons per day facility treats production process water to a high effluent quality to irrigate more than 900 acres of Bush Brothers & Company-owned agriculture, indicates a release, adding some of the treated water is reused in non-food-contact applications to reduce the demand for source water.
Amos 5:24 states “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Beyond being used as a metaphor, water itself is a justice issue. Two billion people in the world lack access to safe drinking water at home. At the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Rev. Elias Wolff, from Brazil, talks about the situation in his own country. “Brazil has 12% of the world’s fresh water, and 53% of the fresh water of Latin America. But 35 million people in Brazil have no access to fresh water, and 100 million lack access to sanitation infrastructure.”
