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 advisory was first issued for the communities on May 12 as flooding in Hay River has affected operation of the town’s water treatment plan and resulted in higher than normal turbidity or muddy water. In a public notice on Tuesday, the territorial government announced residents in the four South Slave communities would no longer have to boil their drinking water as turbidity levels had dropped to acceptable levels in water from the water plant and other operational issues had been addressed.
As floodwaters from the Hay River rose in Paradise Gardens Sunday night, a neighbour knocked on the door of Bhreagh Ingarfield and her partner Thomas Whittaker's log home. It was Roger Candow, a longtime river watcher. He told them, "You've got to go now — the water's rushing over the road," recalled Ingarfield. The couple had been watching water levels rise and fall for days, waiting for them to go down like usual. When they bought their house in the fall with the hopes of opening a bed and breakfast, no one could remember flooding ever reaching near the property — not even during the flood of 1963.
The spring break up has prompted a boil water advisory in Hay River, Enterprise, Kakisa and K'atl'odeeche First Nation. Public health is asking residents in these communities to boil their water for at least one minute before drinking it, because of an increase of muddy water caused by the spring breakup. "This advisory is precautionary in nature, and is due to a reoccurrence of higher than normal turbidity," said a statement from the Chief Environmental Health Officer late Sunday afternoon.
