Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

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.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

Buffalo Pound Lake

A prolonged, severe algae bloom is causing 'musty' tap water for Regina, Moose Jaw consumers

A prolonged, severe algae bloom is causing 'musty' tap water for Regina, Moose Jaw consumers

The tap water in the Regina and Moose Jaw areas might smell funky and taste a little off these days, but the people responsible for the water say it's still safe to drink. There has been a prolonged and severe bloom of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) at Buffalo Pound Lake, which is where the tap water comes from, "These organisms produce some compounds, chemical compounds, that produce the taste and odours that people describe as algae or musty," said Blair Kardash, who is the laboratory manager at the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant. 

Filtration change at treatment facility leads to complaints of smelly, musty water in Regina

Filtration change at treatment facility leads to complaints of smelly, musty water in Regina

Kurtis Anderson says the water at his home in Regina's south end smells and tastes terrible. "It really just kind of smells like soil, like organic matter," he said in an interview on Friday. The problem, which began a few weeks ago, is not just limited to drinking water. His family's clothes have the same cloying smell after being run through the wash, their dishes appear to be coated in something and even the water in the shower reeks. "It seems to come and go a little bit, but there's times where it's really bad," Anderson said. The problem isn't coming from inside their home. It's coming from the water source.

Canada’s troubled waters

Canada’s troubled waters

In 2015, Regina and Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, had to ration water supplies due to an inability to treat a toxic algae bloom in Buffalo Pound Lake, which supplies drinking water to both cities. In 2016, a summer drought led to water restrictions in southern Ontario and Nova Scotia, and in 2018 stringent water restrictions were imposed on many southern Alberta communities and farms due to reduced river flows. Even Vancouver, a city perched on the edge of a rainforest, has recently begun rationing summer water use due to a combination of rising consumer demand and a shrinking of the mountain snowpack that supplies the city’s reservoir.

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