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 company behind a massive, multibillion-dollar green energy plan is asking Newfoundland and Labrador's top court to stop protestors from blocking access to its work sites on the Port au Port Peninsula. Lawyers for World Energy GH2 were in Supreme Court in Corner Brook on Thursday afternoon for a hastily called hearing. A group of protesters has been blocking an access road to one of World Energy's sites, on Newfoundland's west coast, for weeks.
The City of Corner Brook says it's paying significantly more for water treatment than it did a year ago. Mayor Jim Parsons says the cost of the multiple chemicals used in the treatment process have all increased by about 40 per cent compared with last year. Some have increased by more than 50 per cent. "We're used to seeing price increases throughout the COVID thing. We've noticed the supply is not where it used to be, so prices go up," said Parsons in a recent interview.
Now, there's renewed hope from an unlikely source: Corner Brook Pulp and Paper, the mill that has occupied a swath of the the city's waterfront for almost a century. The mill has its own wastewater plant that processes its own effluent, and approached the city last year with an idea to examine expanding that to include municipal sewage. "We thought it was something that would make sense to look at," said Darren Pelley, the vice president and general manager of Corner Brook Pulp and Paper.
An investment of $104,800 will be made to help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve water quality in St. John’s and Corner Brook in Newfoundland and Labrador, thanks to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ (FCM) Green Municipal Fund (GMF). The announcement was made July 20 by Minister of Natural Resources Seamus O’Regan Jr. and FCM president Joanne Vanderheyden.
Twenty million litres of water is filtered at Corner Brook's treatment plant every day — above average for the community's size, say city staff, who are urging residents to conserve. Don Burden, the City of Corner Brook's director of public works, would like it if people ran their taps less often. "Lets keep consumption to the absolute minimum," Burden said in an interview with CBC News. Burden said the average resident of Corner Brook, which has a population of about 23,000 people, consumes more water than an average resident of Newfoundland and Labrador. "Let's keep the watering of lawns to a minimum," he said. "Let's keep a jug of water in the fridge instead of running the tap to get cold water. Run your washer full instead of half-loads. Try not wash your car more than once a week. Try and not wash down your driveway more than once a week. Every little bit helps."
