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

NSERC

From climate change to fish kills – environmental chemistry enabled by innovative research

From climate change to fish kills – environmental chemistry enabled by innovative research

Dr. Erik Krogh, a Vancouver Island University (VIU) Chemistry Professor, is expanding the frontiers of mass spectrometry to develop real-time measurements of emerging contaminants in real-world samples. Access to clean air, water and food is critical to the quality of life in Canada, said Krogh, who is also Co-Director of VIU’s Applied Environmental Research Laboratories. Thousands of chemical pollutants enter the environment as individual compounds or complex mixtures during their production, use and disposal at concentrations that vary widely over time and space. Existing tools to measure the impact of these pollutants on the environment are costly and time intensive, which limits their widespread use.  

Rooted in community: Dalhousie innovators celebrated for their impact in Nova Scotia and beyond at Discovery Awards

Rooted in community: Dalhousie innovators celebrated for their impact in Nova Scotia and beyond at Discovery Awards

Dr. Amina Stoddart, a professor in Dalhousie’s Department of Civil and Resource Engineering, is applying her expertise in wastewater treatment to help advance the state of the art in water utilities. In 2020, Dr. Stoddart was awarded a highly competitive, internationally peer-reviewed 3-year, $1 million Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) Grant with Halifax Water from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) focused on wastewater surveillance and wastewater treatment optimization. This award is one of the largest CRD grants ever awarded to a faculty member at Dalhousie University. The goal of her research is to improve the effluent quality of the wastewater systems operated by Halifax Water. Through a series of studies Dr. Stoddart and her research team will identify chemical treatment optimizations, illuminate fouling mechanisms, test new technologies for disinfection, and assess discharge of contaminants of emerging concern, including microplastics.

A little art, a little science

A little art, a little science

A walk in the park provided inspiration for a striking photograph that earned national recognition this week for an engineering professor at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Zhao Pan was in a 500-year-old Beijing park in his native China after a sudden rainfall when he noticed huge drops of water hanging from the tips of leaves in cypress trees. “I play with droplets every day, but these were much larger than any I had seen in the lab,” he recalls. “I was amazed by Mother Nature, so I decided to do some research into it.”

University of Waterloo leads team investigating 'forever chemicals' in Canadian water systems

University of Waterloo leads team investigating 'forever chemicals' in Canadian water systems

University of Waterloo is leading an interdisciplinary team to identify and treat per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) - better known as forever chemicals – in water systems affecting more than 2.5 million Canadians. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) is providing the funding to detect, identify and treat PFAS-contaminated water, the university said in a media release.

Waterloo leads interdisciplinary team investigating new forever chemicals in Canadian water systems

Waterloo leads interdisciplinary team investigating new forever chemicals in Canadian water systems

University of Waterloo is leading an interdisciplinary team to identify and treat per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – better known as forever chemicals – in water systems affecting more than 2.5 million Canadians. PFAS, are a new class of more than 4,000 environmental contaminants whose impact on human health is unknown. PFAS are used in a wide range of products such as cosmetics, textiles, fire-fighting foams and food packaging materials.

Nova Scotia researchers look into wastewater as COVID-19 tracker

Nova Scotia researchers look into wastewater as COVID-19 tracker

Nova Scotia researchers are looking into flushing out new ways to track COVID-19. Studies in countries such as the Netherlands and Switzerland have targeted the genetic remnants of the deadly virus in municipal wastewater systems. They found that tracking the ribonucleic acid (RNA) fingerprint of COVID-19 in specific wastewater locations mirrored the later emergence of cases through clinical testing in the community.

Decontaminating pesticide-polluted water using engineered nanomaterial and sunlight

Decontaminating pesticide-polluted water using engineered nanomaterial and sunlight

QUÉBEC, Jan. 15 2020 /CNW Telbec/ - Atrazine is one of the most widely used pesticides in North America. Researchers at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) have developed a new method to degrade it that combines a new nanostructured material and sunlight.  Atrazine is found throughout the environment, even in the drinking water of millions of people across the country. Conventional water treatments are not effective in degrading this pesticide. Newer processes are more effective, but use chemicals that can leave toxic by-products in the environment.

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