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.
Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has launched a 16-year overhaul of the 1045MW R.H. Saunders Generating Station, the second-largest hydroelectric project in Ontario, Canada. The project began in January, with the first of the station’s 16 units, G9, now fully disassembled, with refurbishment set to be completed by early 2024. The overhauls of the rest of the station’s units will occur each subsequent year until the project wraps up by around 2039.
Although the lower river levels of the Mississippi River are perhaps better documented as affecting the movement of product into and through the US, Canada’s St. Lawrence River is also experiencing its shortcomings. The St. Lawrence River route with ports on both the US and Canadian sides moves a lot of agricultural products—about 40 percent of the Seaway’s trade. Note that the St. Lawrence route also moves cargo down via the Mississippi into the US, and vice versa.
