Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

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.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

Mooney's Bay

Swimming 'not recommended' at Petrie Island East Bay and Britannia: OPH

Swimming 'not recommended' at Petrie Island East Bay and Britannia: OPH

Take a dip at Mooney’s Bay or the Petrie Island River Beaches Tuesday but Ottawa Public Health says that swimming is “not recommended” at Petrie Island East Bay and Britannia. Water samples are collected daily from City of Ottawa supervised beaches between mid-June and the end of August and tested for E. coli bacteria. When tests find high levels of E. coli, it’s more likely that other disease-causing organisms are in the water, too, the health unit said.Those organisms can cause skin, ear, throat or gastrointestinal illnesses.

Gull wires won't go up at 2 Ottawa beaches this summer

Gull wires won't go up at 2 Ottawa beaches this summer

Residents are worried about a potential increase of E. coli because the City of Ottawa won't install wires to prevent birds at Britannia and Mooney's Bay beaches this season. The wires were installed three metres above sections of those beaches a number of years ago to help prevent the congregation of gulls, which are linked to driving up E. coli counts in nearby water. The city said the wires will not go up this summer as it searches for other ways to manage seagulls and other birds.

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