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.
Residents who live near Osoyoos Lake, on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, are in Osoyoos this week to discuss the health of the international waterway that connects them. The water science forum made its return to the Okanagan Valley for the first time since 2015 – the event was to be held a couple of years ago but was put on hold due to the COVID pandemic.
Brock Biological Sciences Professor Liette Vasseur is helping municipalities to mitigate damage to their shorelines and plan for a more sustainable future. Vasseur is part of a Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative called the Mayors Advisory Council on Coastal Resilience. The council was established to work with mayors of municipalities on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border to develop recommendations on how to mitigate the considerable damage to their shorelines caused by erosion, flooding and other impacts, and adapt to increasing water level fluctuations and other extreme weather events.
