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.
All bodies of water in Kootenay and Yoho National Parks have been closed for the next five months after a suspected case of whirling disease was reported in British Columbia's southeast Rocky Mountains. Parks Canada says in a news release it's the first time the microscopic parasite that causes the fatal disease in fish has been detected in the province.
Much of Alberta and Saskatchewan relies on water from melting snow in the Rocky Mountains for replenishment of waterways in the summer. But John Pomeroy — director of the University of Saskatchewan's Coldwater Laboratory in Canmore, Alta. — told CBC that this past winter provided one of the lowest snowpacks he's seen. The snow also melted about six weeks earlier than anticipated, fuelled by the unseasonably warm weather.
Snow-wise, it hasn't been a great year in the Rocky Mountains, says Canmore-based water expert John Pomeroy. "[The snowpack] is in the lowest quarter to lowest 10 per cent of all years measured over the last half century in the Kananaskis-Banff region," said Pomeroy, who is Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change at the University of Saskatchewan. "It's definitely a low snow year."
The Simpcw First Nation has become the latest community to declare a part of its traditional territory near the B.C.-Alberta border to be protected from logging and other extractive activities. On Monday, the First Nation announced it had declared the Raush Valley watershed — home to rare temperate rainforests located in the Rocky Mountains, halfway between Valemount and McBride — as an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA), based on what it says is the community's inherent right over its unceded territory.
The climate crisis is becoming a water crisis, and last year was one of the most disastrous years in Canadian history for water-related extreme events. Widespread drought, flooding, wildfires, permafrost thaw, and glacier retreat resulted in damage to communities, lakes, forests, animals, and crops. As spring 2022 begins, scientists are seeing snowpacks at record-highs in the Yukon and parts of the Rocky Mountains and Manitoba that could lead to more flooding in the West. However, low to non-existent snowpacks have developed across parts of southern Alberta indicating that another drought leading to difficulty growing crops and feeding and watering livestock, could also be on the horizon.
Where fly fisherman Shane Olson once paddled summer tourists around in a boat, he now guides them by foot — carefully navigating shallow waters one step at a time. “Every year, these rivers seem to be getting smaller, faster,” the 48-year-old said as he whipped a fishing line over the Crowsnest River. “We are pushing it to the absolute breaking point” During the second half of this century, most Canadian Rocky glaciers will melt, according to a 2019 study in Water Resources Research. The region’s water outlook will be “bleak” long before then, said University of Lethbridge geographer Christopher Hopkins. Currently, warmer temperatures are causing mountain snow and ice to melt earlier in the year, increasing the likelihood of summertime water shortages, according to research published last year in Environmental Reviews.
With hits like the "Roughest Neck Around" that celebrate oil workers, Canadian country rocker Corb Lund might not be an obvious choice as a campaigner against fossil fuel expansion. But the music star has taken on an unexpected new role, as a leader of efforts to stop new open-pit coal mines in western Canada's iconic Rocky Mountains. Alberta’s province, dubbed "Canada's Texas" by political scientists for its petroleum industry and conservative political culture, has been hit by the cancellation of the planned Keystone XL pipeline to the United States, as US President Joe Biden's administration steps up action on climate change.
Alberta's plan to allow for open-pit coal mining in the Rocky Mountains could be a serious threat to Saskatchewan's water supply, says the director of the Global Water Futures Project at the University of Saskatchewan. "For a water scientist to see this happening, it's just an abomination to have these types of developments suggested in the headwaters of the rivers that supply drinking water and the economy for most of Saskatchewan," John Pomeroy told CBC's Blue Sky. Last spring, the Alberta government revoked a 1976 policy that blocked open-pit coal mining on the eastern slopes and peaks of the Rockies.
In Alberta, water users are granted the right to withdraw water from rivers and streams through a licensing system. In some watersheds, including the Oldman, that system is closed. There’s a finite amount of water available, and all of the licences are spoken for. The issue is not new. A water policy directive created by the Alberta government in 2006 found “limits for water allocations had been reached or exceeded on the Bow, Oldman and South Saskatchewan River sub-basins, putting at risk Alberta’s obligation to provide water to neighbouring provinces and conserve the aquatic ecosystem.”
Alberta government documents show repeated cuts to environmental monitoring despite contaminants in some waterways that exceed thresholds that are supposed to trigger increased scrutiny. The province's 2019 five-year monitoring plan shows stations on two rivers and a creek polluted with selenium from coal mines were mothballed. That was despite more than two decades of readings that Alberta Environment guidelines suggest should have led to closer attention.
The province's plan for large-scale expansion of the industry is fueling widespread criticism that includes concerns over selenium pollution. The data shows that same contaminant has been found for years at high levels downstream of three mines and never publicly reported. The findings raise questions about Alberta Environment, said a former senior official who has seen the data. "There were lots of [selenium] numbers and it was consistently above the water quality guidelines and in many cases way higher," said Bill Donahue, the department's one-time executive director of science. "Why did Alberta Environment sit on these data for easily the last 10 to 15 years?"
The Columbia River Treaty, an international agreement governing the flow of water between British Columbia and six U.S. states, will be 55 years old this year. It has not aged well. The river springs from the Columbia Icefield in the Rocky Mountains of B.C. and winds 1,930 kilometres through the Northwestern United States – Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming. No other river in North America spills more water into the Pacific Ocean.
