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.
After nearly two months, water customers in the Region of Queens Municipality are no longer under a boil-water advisory. The municipality posted a message on its website Thursday saying that the provincial Environment Department had approved lifting the measure and that "water quality production issues" had been resolved. The advisory had been in place since Aug. 9, after the area's water treatment facility was damaged by a lightning strike during a storm.
Today, Lena Metlege Diab, Member of Parliament for Halifax West, the Honourable Kim Masland, Minister of Public Works, and Her Worship Darlene Norman, Mayor of the Region of Queens Municipality, announced more than $2.6 million in joint funding for water and wastewater infrastructure upgrades in the Region of Queens Municipality. Funding will go towards upgrading and replacing water, sanitary, and storm sewer lines and decommissioning the existing combined sewer outfall in the Waterloo East sewershed boundary. The project will also include a new wastewater pumping station, forcemain, and a new storm sewer outfall. The stormwater system will be designed to withstand 100-year storm water levels.
A group of Grade 7 students delivered some shocking results to the Region of Queens Municipality council meeting December 22. The South Queens Middle School students had been working on a Social Studies project to test fecal bacteria, or enterococci, levels in the Mersey River. The students found readings of between 230 and 340 enterococci to 100 millilitres of water. Under Health Canada regulations, it is not advisable to swim in water where there is 70 enterococci/100 ml. And at 170 enterococci/100 ml, the water should not touch skin.
