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 problem of lead in Regina’s drinking water has been a discussion point for many years at city hall and in the community. An investigation led by Concordia University’s Institute for Investigative Journalism, published in 2019, found that tap water in Regina, Moose Jaw and Saskatoon had some of the highest measured levels of lead in Canada.
The Buffalo Pound water treatment plant, which supplies drinking water to nearly a quarter of Saskatchewan residents, is getting $222 million in upgrades to refurbish its aging infrastructure. The project is expected to start construction in early 2022, with costs being split across several levels of government. Ottawa will contribute $89 million, Saskatchewan will chip in $74 million and the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Corporation, which is owned by the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw, will contribute $59 million.
New research by scientists at the University of Regina’s Institute of Environmental Change and Society shows that global warming is increasing levels of toxic algae detrimental to human health. The study was published online, in the journal Limnology and Oceanography Letters. “Our decade-long project establishes that global warming is increasing toxin levels in Prairie lakes,” says Dr. Peter Leavitt, a Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change and Society and a co-author of the study. “What is particularly worrying is that the chance of exceeding toxin levels that cause acute human health effects has increased to one in four in several lakes in southern Saskatchewan.”
In light of a recent investigation that showed high levels of lead in the drinking water of some Regina homes, the city says it’s drafting a motion to fast-track its lead service connection replacement program. “It is definitely a problem and we are not minimizing anything here,” Mayor Michael Fougere said. “We want to make sure that we have the program accelerated so that [on] the city-side, our connections are done right away and at the same time we do the homeowners’ side as well.”
It's a big project that has been on the books for a number of years, but the cost and logistics of the project kept it from being moved into the budget. But with a growing concern of securing clean, safe drinking water around the world, the City of Moose Jaw is close to completing a new water transmission line that should provide that resource to the community for many years to come.
