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.
The main contractor in charge of constructing the Site C hydroelectric dam project near Fort St. John in northeastern B.C. has been hit with a $1.1 million fine for dumping contaminated drainage water into the Peace River. The penalty was imposed after Peace River Hydro Partners pleaded guilty in provincial court in Fort St. John on Monday to depositing a deleterious substance into fish-bearing waters, a violation of the federal Fisheries Act, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada,
BC Hydro and the Site C dam’s main civil works contractor have been charged under the federal Fisheries Act for failing to immediately report the discharge of four million litres of potentially contaminated acid rock drainage water into the fish-bearing Peace River. The contractor, Peace River Hydro Partners, was also charged with depositing a harmful substance into the Peace River, according to BC Hydro’s latest quarterly Site C dam report. The report, released in late December, says the public utility learned of the charges in late October following an investigation by Environment and Climate Change Canada.
