Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

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.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

University of British Columbia

Drinking water, aquatic life at risk due to B.C.’s fire-ravaged summer: experts

Drinking water, aquatic life at risk due to B.C.’s fire-ravaged summer: experts

Experts say the extent to which wildfires have burned across the province this year will have serious implications for the quality of B.C.’s watersheds and the ecosystems that rely on them. John Richardson, a Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences professor at the University of British Columbia, says with so many hillsides scorched by wildfires this year, there’s nothing to prevent incoming rain from creating a “debris torrent” — something which spells bad news for the province’s drinking water.

UBC research seeks treatment solution to ‘forever chemicals’ from water

UBC research seeks treatment solution to ‘forever chemicals’ from water

UBC researchers have developed a treatment to remove hazardous ‘forever chemicals’ from our environment. Professor Madjid Mohseni has been at the forefront of the research effort, working with his colleagues in Quebec where polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, have been detected in that province’s water sources. “In B.C. unfortunately, the data is lacking so we hope to start gathering that information to determine how widespread the problem is…we are at stage now to take what we have developed from the lab testing and test it out in field studies,” Mohseni said.

Is road salt killing salmon in B.C. streams? UBC researchers trying to find out

Is road salt killing salmon in B.C. streams? UBC researchers trying to find out

University of B.C. researchers are embarking on a five-year study to find out whether road salt is contributing to salmon mortality in B.C. streams. The team, led by Patricia Schulte, Chris Wood and Colin Brauner, also involves dozens of volunteer stream-keepers at 30 streams or creeks. Schulte, a professor in the Department of Zoology at UBC, said as the ice melts on the roads, it runs down into freshwater streams or can seep into the groundwater. Researchers know the salt can harm baby salmon or trout but what they don’t know yet is how much of the salt is winding up in the water.

Some farmers in B.C. able to extend harvesting while others struggle with drought

Some farmers in B.C. able to extend harvesting while others struggle with drought

The unusual stretch of warm weather and summer-like heat is allowing some farmers in B.C. to extend their fall harvest season as crops continue to grow and yield quality produce, while others, especially in water-restricted areas, are struggling with the lack of rain. Sean Smukler, the chair of agriculture and environment at the University of British Columbia, says farmers experienced a cold and wet start to spring that delayed the growth of their crops by about three weeks, but some have been able to make up for lost time in the latter half of the season. "The crops that are well established and just need a little bit of water in this late season are probably able to take advantage of the sunny warm weather," Smukler told CBC News.

The UN just recognized access to a healthy environment is a universal human right. It’s time for Canada to take action

The UN just recognized access to a healthy environment is a universal human right. It’s time for Canada to take action

The authors are all professors at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability. David Boyd is also the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment. The world’s future became a little bit brighter recently. On July 28, for the first time in history, the United Nations General Assembly recognized that everyone, everywhere, has a right to live in a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Now it’s time for Canada to step up and take action to ensure that right for all its citizens.

Social factors make Indigenous people more vulnerable to COVID, says B.C. professor

Social factors make Indigenous people more vulnerable to COVID, says B.C. professor

Lack of access to clean drinking water and low-quality health care have had a direct impact of Indigenous people’s vulnerability to COVID-19, according to a B.C. expert. Kimberly Huyser, an associate professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia, has been studying Indigenous people’s health in relation to the pandemic since it began. She said it wasn’t the specific virus that interested her, but rather the way it highlighted how health care often fails Indigenous people in North America.

The Lhoosk’uz Dené village near Quesnel celebrates clean drinking water

The Lhoosk’uz Dené village near Quesnel celebrates clean drinking water

The Lhoosk’uz Dené village, located 200 kilometres west of Quesnel on Kluskus Lake, now has clean drinking water — for the first time in 20 years. The remote village of about 50 people has relied on bottled water to supply their household and everyday needs. “We’re so off-grid that many people don’t even know where we are. Even the nearest hospital is three hours away,” says Chief Liliane Squinas in a July 13 statement from the University of British Columbia (UBC). In 2008, the community received its first road access — a single logging road. “The community had no road access prior,” says Madjid Mohseni, a UBC professorin chemical and biological engineering.

Salmon and other sea life affected by recent heat waves, experts say

Salmon and other sea life affected by recent heat waves, experts say

A sweltering heat wave in much of Western Canada in the last week of June had cascading effects on sea life, experts say. Scott Hinch, director of the Pacific salmon ecology and conservation laboratory at the University of British Columbia, said juvenile salmon such as sockeye, coho and chinook in fresh water would have been most affected by recent heat waves. “They’re going to be living in fresh water for one to two years and it’s that life history stage, that this particular heat wave and just climate change in fresh water in particular, is going to have some of its greatest effects,” he said in an interview.

Blue-green algae to be investigated as possible cause of mystery neurological disease

Blue-green algae to be investigated as possible cause of mystery neurological disease

A bacteria blamed in previous years for killing dogs that consumed it will be investigated as a potential cause of a mystery neurological brain disease observed in New Brunswick that has killed six people, says a researcher involved in the work. Researchers studying the disease plan on looking at cyanobacteria — also known as blue-green algae — and another toxin present in the region to see if there's a link between them and the disease, said Dr. Neil Cashman, a professor in the University of British Columbia's faculty of medicine, who's helping investigate the illness.

Earth's frozen 'water towers' threatened by warming, population growth, report says

Earth's frozen 'water towers' threatened by warming, population growth, report says

Water frozen at the tops of mountains that helps sustain up to a quarter of the human population is under threat from climate change, population growth and lack of proper management, according to a new international study. The systems store and transport water through glaciers, snow packs, lakes and streams. They supply water to 1.9 billion people on Earth. A group of 32 international scientists — including one Canadian — published a paper in the journal Nature on Monday to highlight the importance and vulnerabilities of what they call Earth's 78 water towers.

Lead levels in Prince Rupert drinking water could point to B.C.-wide problems

Lead levels in Prince Rupert drinking water could point to B.C.-wide problems

Leona Peterson doesn’t drink the water from her tap anymore. The single mother says she was warned about lead in the water by a neighbour as soon as she moved into the subsidized Indigenous housing complex where she lives in Prince Rupert, a city of almost 12,000 people in northwestern B.C. “She said, ‘There is lead in our water,’” Peterson said. “‘Don’t doubt it, just start flushing.’”

WSP Canada Wins Award for Innovative Solution for Safe Water in Remote Communities

WSP Canada Wins Award for Innovative Solution for Safe Water in Remote Communities

WSP won for its work in developing an innovative solution for safe water in remote communities. Like many remote communities, the people of the Tl’azt’en Nation in northern B.C. had no access to clean drinking water. Because conventional water treatment technology was unfeasible, WSP Canada and the RES’EAU-WaterNET partnered to develop a treatment system for organic material. The project delivered a full-scale plant that allowed a 14-year boil water advisory to be lifted. The system uses natural biological processes, is low in consumables, reduces chemical requirements, produces little waste and is simple for operators to use.

UBC fined $1.2M for releasing ammonia into Fraser River tributary

UBC fined $1.2M for releasing ammonia into Fraser River tributary

Environment and Climate Change Canada has issued hefty fines to the University of British Columbia and CIMCO Refrigeration for releasing ammonia-laden water into a tributary of the Fraser River in Vancouver. According to a written statement, UBC was fined $1.2 million and CIMCO $800,000 stemming from a complaint about an ammonia odour at an outfall ditch connected to Booming Ground Creek in Pacific Spirit Regional Park on Sept. 12, 2014. The ministry says UBC and CIMCO were fixing the refrigeration system at Thunderbird Arena at the university's Vancouver campus when they purged residual ammonia vapours from the system into a storm drain that flowed into a ditch and then the creek. 

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