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.
Melfort council has passed a motion to allow the city to borrow $4 million for water line replacements this summer. This isn’t the first public conversation about the borrowing with it being a topic of discussion when council deliberated the 2022 budget in January. The city loses about 12 to 15 per cent of its water supply due to breaks annually. Adam Homes, Melfort’s city manager, called the $4 million loan a start to alleviating the issue.
A new $9.6 million addition to the Melfort water treatment plant is intended to extend the longevity of the regional system, providing redundancy and a 40 to 50 year life span. The original water treatment plant in Melfort was built in 1958 and underwent upgrades in 1972. It was expanded in 1994, shortly after SaskWater purchased the plant. The system supplies water to approximately 9,000 users from the City of Melfort, the Melfort Rural Pipeline Association, the Village of Weldon, the Town of Kinistino, the Village of Beatty, the Town of Star City, Star City Farming, and Wapiti Valley Regional Park as well as several individual rural users.
Most of southern Saskatchewan has the potential for a below to well below normal spring runoff, according to preliminary data released Friday by the Water Security Agency. The north, however, could experience a normal to above normal runoff. The WSA said it bases its estimates on a number of factors, including conditions at freeze-up and the snowpack. Most of the southern regions experienced very dry conditions last summer and into the fall, and the snowpack is near normal to below normal. The WSA says this projects to a below normal runoff for an area covering Prince Albert, Saskatoon and Melfort, dipping as far south as Maple Creek and Val Marie.
