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.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May has tabled a petition calling on the federal government to take urgent action on Canada’s aging asbestos-cement pipes due to the potential dangers of drinking tap water containing the deadly fibre. “This is an understudied and unregulated problem,” May said Thursday in the House of Commons. “Believe it or not, many municipalities rely on old cement water pipe delivering water to millions of Canadians, and the pipes contain asbestos fibres.”
Following W5’s report, and in an abundance of caution, the City consulted with the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health. On May 23, 2023, staff collected a sample of water from the Glen Collector System at the Arkell Spring Grounds. Lex Scientific was contracted to analyze the sample and on June 1, 2023, the City received the results of the sample. The Lex Scientific water analysis technical memo indicated tests showed no detection of asbestos fibres in the raw water groundwater sample.
Medicine Hat, Alta. will begin testing for asbestos due to "community concerns" following a W5 investigation that showed the presence of fibres in the tap water of two Canadian cities. About 32 per cent of Medicine Hat’s watermain network — roughly 140 kilometres — is made up of asbestos cement pipe and is among the 85 communities W5 revealed to have those pipes still in use underground.
Walking the streets of Libby, Mont., on a hazy September day, it’s not uncommon to hear the cough of a local resident. The picturesque, blue-collar town about an hour southwest of the Canada-U.S. Border in Montana’s north was once bustling with jobs thanks to nearby vermiculite mines. The work helped line locals’ wallets with steady pay. And lined their lungs with toxic asbestos dust. Years of remediation have helped make the town of about 2,700 safe again following what government officials called the worst case of industrial poisoning of a community in American history. But residents are still struggling to rebuild after hundreds died, and approximately 2,400 have been diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases.
Winnipeg mayoral candidate Rana Bokhari says she will start testing the city’s water for asbestos if elected mayor this fall. Bokhari would also lobby the federal government to include Winnipeg’s water pipe system in their upcoming infrastructure review. “We have not tested Winnipeg’s water for asbestos fibres since 1995,” Bokhari said in a Monday news release. “As research into the issue of asbestos in water pipes and the possibly detrimental effect on human health has continued for the past 30 years, it’s become increasingly obvious that we are ignoring a major potential health hazard in our water system.”
A series of atmospheric rivers hit southern B.C. in November, causing evacuations, widespread flooding and mudslides. Watch this file for updates with the latest on the recovery effort. Highway 1 has been fully reopened between Abbotsford and Hope, said the transportation ministry Tuesday. WorkSafeBC is reminding employers and contractors to watch out for hazardous materials during post-flood recovery.
Restoration companies and contractors in British Columbia that are about to help launch a massive flood cleanup and repair effort must be aware of the risks and hazards their work could pose to employees, says the province's worker protection agency. The risks vary depending on the flood and slide damage, but potential hazards include building materials with asbestos, chemical or biological contamination, structural or electrical damage and animal carcasses, said Barry Nakahara, WorkSafeBC's senior prevention services field manager.
