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.
More than 100 households in Newfoundland and Labrador have learned their well water contains dangerous levels of arsenic — and hundreds more across the province may be drinking the toxin without knowing it. The Department of Environment recently released the first batch of results from its free testing program for private wells it announced last year.
The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) announced Wednesday that Hiberia will pay $400,000 in fines as the result of a 2019 oil spill on the Hibernia platform. The spill happened on July 17, 2019, when approximately 12,000 litres of crude oil mixed with water was released from the platform into the Atlantic Ocean. Hibernia Management and Development Company Ltd. said at the time the discharge was likely caused by a sensor issue and called it an isolated incident.
During a visit to Newfoundland last week, federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, said that while exploration drilling is permitted within the refuge, production is not. "There are different levels of protection. In marine protected areas, there is no allowance for oil and gas development, but in marine refuges there is a provision that allows for exploration but not for production. So one can actually explore within the context of a marine refuge", Wilkinson said Wednesday.
The local service district for Mainland, on Newfoundland's Port au Port Peninsula, has shut off its water supply, claiming it's undrinkable, and blaming the development of a wind energy project in the area. Dwight Cornect, director of the local service district, says LeCointre's Brook, the community's secondary water source, is discoloured. "The water is brown," Cornect said Thursday. He said he doesn't accept the government's assurances that the water has been tested and has no issues.
Few will forget post-tropical storm Fiona, battering the east coast last fall. From Cape Breton to Charlottetown, Halifax to Port aux Basques, Canadians were caught between downed power lines and trees, with harrowing stories of narrow escapes from the rising waters. Some homes were completely submerged, and carried out to sea. One woman in Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, tragically lost her life this way.
The City of Corner Brook says it's paying significantly more for water treatment than it did a year ago. Mayor Jim Parsons says the cost of the multiple chemicals used in the treatment process have all increased by about 40 per cent compared with last year. Some have increased by more than 50 per cent. "We're used to seeing price increases throughout the COVID thing. We've noticed the supply is not where it used to be, so prices go up," said Parsons in a recent interview.
A Memorial University researcher is urging well owners in Newfoundland to make lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of disease caused by arsenic exposure. Atanu Sarkar, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine, says years or decades of drinking water contaminated by arsenic increases the risk of several cancers — including kidney, liver and lung cancer — due to epigenetic changes that occur during long-term exposure. "They're more prone to have cancer in [the] future," Sarkar said.
Sailors in Newfoundland and Labrador may say that winter isn't the best time to be on the water. But for two avid sailors from Manitoba, it's the perfect opportunity to try something new. Judith Graile and Wes Hyde drove from Manitoba to Lewisporte, living in a school bus while they refurbished their environmentally friendly sailboat, the Hakluyt. The couple have swapped out the boat's diesel motors for electric motors and have equipped the boat with wind generators and an eco-friendly woodstove. The couple are on a mission to promote healthy eating and draw attention to the changing climate by sailing to the Bahamas, returning to Newfoundland and finishing their journey with a trip to the Arctic next year.
The Port aux Basques area of Newfoundland could face yet another severe weather event with dangerous implications on Saturday. On Friday morning, Environment Canada issued a storm surge warning for the community and surrounding area on the island's southwest coast. The region is still rebuilding and cleaning up after post-tropical storm Fiona ripped through the area in late September, demolishing 100 homes in its wake. In mid-November, another rainstorm brought additional flooding, further complicating the clean up effort.
With inflation driving construction costs higher than in previous years, local service distracts are having trouble coming up with the 10 per cent in funding they need to tackle important infrastructure upgrades. When small communities and local service districts in Newfoundland and Labrador need to build roads or water treatment plants, most of the cost is covered by the provincial government. But some districts have started to run into problems, when jobs can no longer be done for the amount of money available by the time tenders go out.
Leaky pipes, a water source that's depleting, and climate change threatening the whole fragile system. The town of Small Point-Broad Cove-Blackhead-Adam's Cove has unique challenges with its water system, but the big picture looks all too familiar in small towns throughout the province. Most mornings, longtime municipal worker Mike Hurley starts his day by checking the wells. The town's water system is composed of a series of wells, bringing water from deep underground to nearby houses through plastic pipes. Hurley has his hands full battling leaks and mechanical breakdowns, but there are some problems he can't fix.
Leaders of small Newfoundland and Labrador towns say water in their communities is so unreliable that in some cases, it has made residents ill. While government says it's slowly working on fixes, there's no clear end for boil advisories in sight. Black Tickle, a community on Labrador's south coast, has been under a chronic boil order for years, says Todd Russell, president of the NunatuKavut community council. The unpotable water has meant widespread disease among the locals, he said.
A conservation team is working to research lost or covered waterways using geographic technology to analyze water quality. The Conversation Corp N.L.’s Green Team, in partnership with Northeast Avalon ACAP (NAACAP), has begun analyzing the Virginia River and implementing other guidelines to assess other spots along the river. The team has been recording measurements of the sites and assessing culvert conditions, depth and velocity of the water, PH value, dissolved oxygen, total organic solids, salt content and temperature conditions.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz are set to sign a green energy agreement later this month in Newfoundland that could prove pivotal to Canada's nascent hydrogen industry. The German government on Friday issued a statement confirming the agreement will be signed Aug. 23 in Stephenville, where a Newfoundland-based company plans to build a zero-emission plant that will use wind energy to produce hydrogen and ammonia for export.
The federal government has announced $27 million in funding for three projects to improve public services and protect waters in St. John’s, Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove and surrounding communities in Newfoundland and Labrador. In St. John’s, new wastewater infrastructure will improve municipal services in the Goulds area and help protect Shoal Bay and the harbour. In addition, there will be ditching and erosion control measures taken along the Motion Bay Road extension in Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove. The federal government is spending $9.8 million, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is contributing $7.4 million and the municipalities are providing a total of $9.8 million, stated a release.
A wind farm project on Newfoundland's west coast slated to produce green hydrogen energy in a plant in Stephenville already has interest from an overseas buyer. The project, proposed to be constructed on the Port au Port Peninsula, has yet to pass its environmental assessment but a decision from the provincial government is expected by Aug. 5. On Friday, federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and the provincial Energy Minister Andrew Parsons attended an energy and mines conference in St. John's.
Much of Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula was left dealing with flooding and strong winds Sunday, while Labrador braced for blizzard conditions. Blair Sparkes of Environment Canada's Gander weather office says several areas on the Avalon Peninsula reported more than 70 mm of rain overnight Saturday. Sparkes said melting snow also contributed to the flooding. "Temperatures did get up fairly warm overnight, generally running around eight to 10 degrees now over the Avalon Peninsula — actually, most of eastern and southern Newfoundland are seeing those kind of numbers," he said Sunday on CBC Radio's Weekend AM.
As icebergs drifted by his Antarctica-bound ship, David Holland spoke this week of how the melting glacier he's cruising towards may contain warning signals for the coasts of far-off Canada. The atmospheric and ocean scientist from Newfoundland is part of an expedition to one of the world's most frigid and remote spots -- the Thwaites glacier in the western portion of the continent -- where he'll measure water temperatures in an undersea channel the size of Manhattan.
In stormy weather, Jerome Kerivan finds himself wondering how much more pressure his eight-year-old home can take. “The last two to four years, there’s a lot more spray coming in over the breakwater that strikes the house,” he said of his sea-facing home near the Placentia lift bridge. “I get concerned. … What’s going to happen? The biggest concerns I have are the shingles and everything on the house.” The storms are more frequent and the winds are a lot stronger, said Kerivan, a retired fisherman. Like many other residents, Kerivan credits a seawall built decades ago following severe flooding in the 1980s with keeping Placentia — much of which is below sea level — protected from potentially devastating flooding.
When Craig Purchase visited his normal fishing spot upstream of Terra Nova Lake this past Labour Day weekend, it was clear why angling was off the table. "Where it would normally be waist deep, there was two to three inches of water," Purchase, who's also a professor of biology at Memorial University, said. Bare rocks and trickling brooks have been a common sight through a swath of central Newfoundland this summer, Purchase said.
