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.
On Tuesday, an emotional call came into our Chilliwack office, along with a video that was hard to watch. A small school of coho salmon struggled to push from one tiny pool of water to another in a futile effort to spawn. The cool, clean water they needed to survive and lay their eggs was nowhere to be found. Scenes like this are playing out across B.C. as this record-setting drought kills salmon, trees and other flora and fauna en masse.
The Nature Conservancy of Canada has announced a $6.9-million campaign to save a distinctive landscape near Waterton Lakes National Park in southern Alberta. The 1,650-hectare property, called The Yarrow, is located near the hamlet of Twin Butte, about 80 kilometres southwest of Lethbridge. The NCC says the property features grasslands, wetlands, creeks and mixed forests and includes 27 wildlife species of provincial or national significance — including grizzly bears, birds called bobolinks and little brown bats.
A rock wall under construction on the beach at Point Deroche, P.E.I., is raising discussion about what is acceptable to protect the shoreline from erosion. Bryson Guptill, an avid hiker of trails and beaches, first noticed the rock wall and beach house development months ago. "It's a problem because people used to walk down that beach and walk all the way along. Now there's so much armour stone that you can't get around. Even at low tide you can't get around."
A mountain of data will be needed to get the full picture of climate change impacts on the West Kootenay ecosystem, say planners, scientists, and members of the region’s environmental community. To draw attention to two web-based tools for water and climate data in the Columbia Basin, Nelson-based non-governmental organization Living Lakes Canada brought together a panel of local experts on Oct. 12. “The idea is that we don’t have enough data on our watersheds in the Columbia Basin to make informed decisions about how to react to climate change,” said Nicole Trigg, communications director for Living Lakes Canada. “This was a great opening conversation on a very important topic.”
Has received full authorization pursuant to the federal Fisheries Act from Fisheries and Oceans Canada for the Valentine Gold Project in central Newfoundland. Receipt of this authorization allows Marathon to proceed with all site activities regulated by the Fisheries Act, such as dewatering of small freshwater ponds for open pit mine development, changes in flow due to site water management, and placement of water intake and effluent pipes. The authorization follows the successful completion of the federal Environmental Assessment process in August of this year. Marathon Gold Corporation shares T.MOZ are trading unchanged at $0.89.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is billing the taxpayer roughly $500 per year for a product he has infamously referred to as a “drink box water bottle sorta thing.” The charge was included in a massive disclosure of prime ministerial household expenses obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. The five-member Trudeau family was found to rack up a taxpayer-funded grocery budget of approximately $55,000 per year — or roughly $28 per Trudeau, per day. That’s not all that different from the grocery budget accumulated by Trudeau’s predecessor. During his nine years in office, Conservative leader Stephen Harper’s annual family grocery budget averaged out to around $52,218.
The "Canada and US Water and Wastewater Outlook, 2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. This research study discusses the impact of the pandemic on the water and wastewater industry in the United States and Canada, examining the measures being taken by utilities to deal with the same. It identifies the key trends emerging in the industry and the top utilities to watch out for.
Water Ways Technologies (WWT.V), a Toronto, Ontario-based company developer of advanced irrigation and water systems with subsidiaries in Israel, China and Canada, announced today that it’s Canadian subsidiary, Heartnut Grove WWT Inc (HGWWT), has received a second order to design and construct a complete smart irrigation and fertigation project for an existing customer.
Nunavut's government says it has made several improvements to a fuel system in Rankin Inlet to make sure it doesn't have another spill like the one in 2020 that cost the territory $100,000 in federal fines. On Friday, the government issued a news release with details on the outcome of an 18,400-litre diesel fuel spill at Maani Ulujuk Ilinniarvik High School in April 2020.
Perpetua Resources Corp. (Nasdaq: PPTA) (TSX: PPTA) ("Perpetua Resources" or "Perpetua" or the "Company") announced today the summer 2022 field program to initiate water quality improvements in the historical Stibnite mining district is complete. After 100 years of mining activity, the millions of tons of unconstrained tailings and mine waste left behind by previous operators has been degrading water quality for decades. Perpetua was granted permission to take action to address the most pressing water quality concerns through an agreement signed in 2021 between the Company, the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") and the United States Department of Agriculture ("USDA").
Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan say levels of COVID-19 have continued to decline in wastewater in Prince Albert, Saskatoon and North Battleford. On Monday, researchers with the university's Global Water Futures program released their weekly wastewater report. Sewage samples are taken from water treatment plants and tested for levels of COVID-19. The results can be used to determine whether case numbers are expected to rise or fall in the short term future.
Délı̨nę’s second boil water advisory of the month was lifted on Monday evening, the territorial government said. The precautionary advisory was put in place on October 18, just a day after the first boil water advisory of the fall was lifted. Both advisories were put in place due to higher-than-normal level of muddiness in Délı̨nę’s water. Now that the muddiness has declined, the water is now safe to drink.
The Prairie Blood coulee winds through a property on the Kainai Nation, also known as the Blood Tribe, in southern Alberta. On a warm fall day, about a dozen people haul willows, mulch, dirt and water to several spots along a dry creek bed. Some pound large posts into the ground. Technicians from Blood Tribe and volunteers from local environmental groups are building five beaver dam analogs, which mimic a natural logjam. They hope to restore the stream flow to help the landowner care for his animals and have more water for wildlife as the area experiences a decade-long drought.
For only the second time on record, huge pumps have been set up in Upper Quinsam Lake west of Campbell River to ensure there is enough water in the region’s waterways to allow salmon to spawn and to protect new spawning beds at risk because of the ongoing drought. Pumps started working Friday to send water through several hundred metres of pipes into neighbouring Wokas Lake to maintain the current river flow rate. The lakes are connected by a channel.
Vernon mayor Victor Cumming is bringing attention to a nearly $30 million grant received by Greater Vernon Water (GVW) for a planned water filtration plant on Mission Hill. In a press release, Cumming said the grant was “the lightest reported story over the last four years and not even mentioned in the (past) campaign for mayor or council.” The grant, part of the roughly $40 million needed for the plant, is the result of “nine years of pressure by local politicians and Greater Vernon Water staff,” said Cumming.
A team of engineers is in Manitoba to test some equipment that could be a game-changer for small, remote communities. The RivGen Power System generates emission-free electricity from river currents, and its first testing site in Canada is set to be installed near the Seven Sisters Generating Station near Pinawa, Man. Engineers arrived about a week ago and installed the turbine, pushing it into the Winnipeg River on Thursday. Over the weekend, the system will be moved upstream and installed on the mooring system at the University of Manitoba's Canadian Hydrokinetic Turbine Testing Centre.
With climate change and extreme weather becoming more frequent, people are encouraged to provide feedback about how best to prepare for future flooding in B.C. The Ministry of Forests and Emergency Management BC are releasing an intentions paper focused on specific actions to mitigate flooding, such as the fall 2021 atmospheric river. The intentions paper provides discussion points about improved assessment, decision-making, preparedness and response, and crucial investments to safeguard communities.
First Nations and environmentalists say they are angry the federal and British Columbia governments continue to stonewall American requests for a joint investigation of cross-border contamination from coal mining as meetings of the panel that mediates such issues wrap up. "They can sit on every fence they want, but at the end of the day, we're going to do what's right," said Heidi Gravelle, chief of the Tobacco Plains First Nation, one of several bands upset over selenium contamination in southeastern B.C.'s Elk Valley from coal mines.
The Manitoba government is willing to double its funding for a major expansion of CentrePort Canada in northwest Winnipeg to prevent it from being held up by a lack of federal cash. An estimated $60 million is required for water and sewer infrastructure to support the first phase of the inland shipping port's expansion project, CentrePort South. The province and City of Winnipeg previously committed $20 million each, conditional to a matching amount from Ottawa. But that hasn't come through "despite extensive provincial engagement," Premier Heather Stefanson said Friday.
