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.
Researchers studying the presence of the virus causing COVID-19 in local wastewater say the amount of Omicron variant detected in the water has increased rapidly over the past few weeks. Mark Servos, the Canada Research Chair in Water Quality Protection, said Omicron spread appeared in wastewater far faster than any other variant to date. "It just went up so dramatically, so quickly," he said at Waterloo Region's weekly COVID-19 update on Friday. "It was stunning."
Farmers in Waterloo Region have reached a milestone in making farm improvements to protect water quality. As of December 2020, more than $20 million in total capital projects have been completed through support from the Region’s Rural Water Quality Program (RWQP). The RWQP provides financial and technical assistance to farmers implementing voluntary projects to improve and protect water quality. Funded by the Region of Waterloo, the program started in 1998 to address non-point sources of sediment and nutrients and to protect groundwater.
It might feel like the Grand River is an ever-constant, natural connection to our rural past as this region grows and urbanizes. But look a little more closely, and you'll see a river that's constantly evolving. We have left our imprint on the river, just as much as it's left it's imprint on our region. In the 19th century, European settlement reduced the river's natural water flows by converting thousands of hectares of forest and wetlands into farmland.
