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.
A team of experts is working to better understand the spread of blue-green algae in Alberta lakes by combining satellite technology with near-simultaneous water sampling. The project, funded through Alberta Innovates, is a collaboration between several groups, including Alberta Lake Management Society (ALMS), the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI), and researcher Rolf Vinebrooke from the University of Alberta.
An Alberta regulatory body has turned down an application to expand a feedlot near a popular recreational lake, saying the location wasn't appropriate and would damage the local community. In a decision released Wednesday, the Natural Resources Conservation Board denied a plan from G&S Cattle to build a 4,000-head feedlot near the shores of Pigeon Lake, south of Edmonton. "I find that effects of this application on the community would not be acceptable, and that the proposed [confined feeding operation] would not be an appropriate use of this land," wrote approval officer Nathan Shirley.
Alberta Health Services is warning the public of fecal bacteria in a lake southwest of Edmonton. Elevated levels of fecal bacteria were detected through testing lake water at Zeiner Park Beach at Pigeon Lake, located about 100 kilometres southwest of Edmonton, and AHS is advising people not to swim or wade in the water there. The current levels of bacteria could lead to gastrointestinal illness if someone swallows the water. Contact with the water could lead to skin, ear and eye infections, AHS says.
