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 six governments of the Ktunaxa Nation continue to press the federal government on pollution in the Kootenay watershed that crosses the international border between Canada and the United States. Earlier this month, leadership with the six Ktuanxa governments recently met with representatives fro the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Geological Survey on the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho’s reservation lands in Bonner’s Ferry.
A plan devised by American officials that could lead to the creation of a “floodway” to allow the Nooksack River to spill into Canada during high water has many Abbotsford residents on edge. Paula Harris, river and flood manager for Whatcom County, presented the concept to the Whatcom County Flood Control Zone Advisory Committee earlier this month, asking them to support a request for federal funding to buy out homes in an area between the Nooksack River and the Canadian border as a way to mitigate future flooding.
