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.
Although it isn't quite summer yet, blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, is already showing up in New Brunswick waterways. Meghann Bruce, a researcher and instructor with the University of New Brunswick Canadian Rivers Institute, said as soon as the ice went out in early May, there was a "bloom" in Blue Bell Lake near Grand Falls.
As always, visitors and residents are reminded to never drink or cook with untreated water directly from any recreational body of water, including Pine Lake, at any time. AHS says boiling of this water will not remove the toxins produced by blue-green algae. An alternate source of drinking water should also be provided for pets and livestock while this advisory is active.
Blue-green algae has returned as the main suspect in the Grand Lake water contamination saga. “The National Research Council lab did confirm that there are what are known as … the toxins associated with blue-green algae that were collected on Friday,” Julie Towers, deputy minister of the provincial Environment Department, said at a news conference in Elmsdale on Tuesday afternoon.
