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.
In 2020, the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation stopped filling the ponds with potable water in a bid to conserve water, implementing a bylaw that requires some water features, like ponds that do not recirculate water, be switched off. Now many ponds throughout the city are drying up or have completely dried up — to the disappointment of some residents, like Seear. The park board said it is focusing instead on restarting a handful of fountains it previously closed to save water.
Brandon City Council will introduce a bylaw to borrow $15 million for the final phase of upgrades to the municipal water treatment plant at its next meeting. In January, Premier Heather Stefanson announced that Brandon would be receiving a further $15 million from the province toward the project on top of the $38 million it had already provided.
On a summer morning two years ago, Susan Doyle turned on the tap to run a bath — and was greeted with a splash of dark water. "It was black as tar, the water. And I'm like, 'Oh my goodness,'" Doyle said in a recent interview at her Woodbine Park mobile home community in Beaver Bank. After 13 years of winding its way through city hall, a proposed Halifax bylaw would outline construction requirements and service standards for so-called "land-lease communities" like Woodbine Park.
One of the bigger infrastructure projects scheduled for 2021 in Pincher Creek is replacing the storm drainage system along Church Avenue, Willow Street and Poplar Avenue. As part of the 2021 capital budget, $377,042.20 will be used to begin replacing the old storm sewer. Pincher Creek’s drainage system is also getting a legal boost after council approved all three readings for a new storm drainage bylaw, Bylaw 1630-21. Among other things, the bylaw lays out what can and cannot be released into storm drains.
It's that time of year to limit your outdoor water usage. May 31 marks the first day of the conservation water bylaw for our region to conserve the water supply. Dan Meagher is the supervisor for water programs with the Region of Waterloo, and said they have already seen a spike in usage which is why they are promoting the bylaw. "It limits everyone to watering their lawns once a week and other watering activities like cleaning your cars and trees every other day and that is just for us to monitor watering demands and make sure there is enough water for everything that it is needed for." It gets put into effect every year around this time to reduce peak water use and limit the risk of an outdoor watering ban. Meagher says with the pandemic and residents staying home, they have seen an increase in water consumption.
The City of Montreal is accelerating its plan to replace lead pipes in the water system. It's acting now, based on new recommendations from Health Canada and the results of recent studies. Lead exposure can cause neurological and developmental problems in children, and increase blood pressure or cause kidney problems in adults.
The mayor of Rothesay says she's disappointed apartment owners have decided to pass the cost of switching their buildings to the municipal water system on to tenants.
"I don't think residents can afford that," said Rothesay Mayor Nancy Grant. "I think there might be other ways for apartment owners to handle that."
The city passed a bylaw requiring apartment building owners to switch to the municipal water system from well water and pay a consumption tax based on the amount of water used. Council approved the changes in March and sent a letter to apartment owners.
The public gallery at Iqaluit city hall was packed for Thursday night's public consultation on a bylaw that governs the city's water supply and sewer service. However, with increasing water restrictions due to low levels in the city's water supply from Lake Geraldine, people came out en masse to talk about water usage in general.
