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.
An Ottawa judge has certified a class-action lawsuit launched by a group of Mississippi Mills homeowners who say a local fire research lab polluted their drinking water and devalued their homes. The sprawling laboratory is owned by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). The homeowners contend the NRC, though its negligence, released firefighting chemicals into the environment from the lab, contaminated their land and damaged the value of their properties.
I am currently at the VG undergoing my third round of immuno/chemotherapy, and though I know I will be treated with outstanding care, I also know that I will be unable to simply go to the bathroom to rinse my flushed face with cool water from the tap. I will be unable to take a shower, even though the toxic drugs flowing through my body will cause shakes and shivers and night sweats. And I also know that the caretakers and registered nurses who do such a phenomenal job will be taking precious time out of their schedule to prepare clean and pathogen-free water for me and for others much worse off than I am, simply so these individuals who are ill can take a necessary sponge bath to ease the distress of their treatments.
Many government agencies knew about the suspicious well water in Ramsay Meadows, a small subdivision halfway between Almonte and Carleton Place. But none of those agencies told the residents. The 49 homes stand across the street from the National Research Council’s national fire lab, which does research on firefighting. In late 2013, the lab bosses learned that their firefighting chemicals had contaminated their property’s groundwater, probably in the late 1900s.
