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.
Two conservation authorities in eastern Ontario have issued flood warnings for several rivers and watershed lakes in their areas, with flooding imminent or already occurring in some locations. The Rideau Valley Conservation Authority (RVCA) issued its warning Saturday for areas around Bob's Lake in South Frontenac, Christie Lake in Tay Valley and the Tay River in Perth, Ont.
Parks Canada raised the water levels on the Tay River and Christie Lake in part to maintain water levels on the Rideau Canal. “Parks Canada did perform operational work to increase the outflow from Bobs Lake dam,” wrote Aarin Crawford, a public relations and communications officer with Parks Canada’s Rideau Canal Ontario Waterways section in Smiths Falls, in an email exchange with The Perth Courier five days following the initial request. “The outflow increases were conducted to compensate for evaporation demands in the navigation section (of the) Rideau Canal.”
