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.
Many others, in Lake Babine Nation and beyond, share Charlie’s concern. The Babine River is an integral tributary for Skeena sockeye, which is a major sockeye run in B.C., second only to the Fraser River. Skeena sockeye are central to Lake Babine Nation health and economy. Every bad year has future ramifications. If fewer salmon return to spawn one year, it can mean a lower return four or five years down the line — the length of the sockeye life cycle.
New research being spearheaded out of P.E.I. is helping Island farmers make better decisions around when to irrigate their crops — and some say it could not come at a better time. Researchers at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada have been working on a formula to calculate when to irrigate and how much water to use. The result is a new, online irrigation calculator that's accessible to farmers.
In the decade since the Big Flood of 2013, Calgary has seen a number of extreme weather events and scorching, smoky summer days. Four Calgary disasters are included in the Insurance Bureau of Canada's Top 10 list of costliest years for insured losses in Canada — three since the flood, the fourth occurring the year before. The past decade has seen a surprise September snowfall in 2014, a devastating hailstorm in 2020 that resulted in $1.2 billion in damages, and a sweltering and deadly heat dome in the summer of 2021. A number of "catastrophic" weather events have been recorded in almost every year since June 2013, resulting in billions of dollars in damages.
Virtually every snowflake that falls on Fortress Mountain in the Kananaskis region is recorded and watched. "We're in a time when we get extreme weather and a changing climate," said John Pomeroy, director of the University of Saskatchewan's Centre for Hydrology. "We try to follow every drop of water, every flake of snow, and see where it's going." The Centre for Hydrology's Coldwater laboratory is made up of stations with instruments placed on the ridges, glaciers, valleys, and creeks in the Alberta Rockies.
Sailors in Newfoundland and Labrador may say that winter isn't the best time to be on the water. But for two avid sailors from Manitoba, it's the perfect opportunity to try something new. Judith Graile and Wes Hyde drove from Manitoba to Lewisporte, living in a school bus while they refurbished their environmentally friendly sailboat, the Hakluyt. The couple have swapped out the boat's diesel motors for electric motors and have equipped the boat with wind generators and an eco-friendly woodstove. The couple are on a mission to promote healthy eating and draw attention to the changing climate by sailing to the Bahamas, returning to Newfoundland and finishing their journey with a trip to the Arctic next year.
On the Beauchemin family farm in southern Quebec, the problem used to be too much water. But Raphaël Beauchemin says that over the years, his grandfather, father and uncles learned how to cope. Now, with the changing climate, he said, Fermes J.N. Beauchemin et Fils faces a new challenge: long dry periods in the summer. Beauchemin’s father, Ghislain Beauchemin, who has been bringing his children into the dairy and grain farming business for around 15 years, said there are still intense rains that sometimes bring 10 centimetres in 24 hours, but at other times the ground can be parched for two months.
Peachland residents, Syilx people and water leaders are encouraged the provincial government has acknowledged many communities in B.C. face a water crisis, made worse by a changing climate and increased land uses. Budget 2022 dedicates $30 million in much-needed funding to safeguard B.C.’s watersheds by supporting local and Indigenous governments and non-profits like Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance doing watershed work. As the climate crisis continues, we are also pleased to see the government recognize the central role those resilient watersheds play in our lives by investing in much-needed floodplain mapping and outdated flood infrastructure, which will make our communities more resilient to future storms and floods.
The Water Security Agency (WSA), with the support of Natural Resources Canada, is offering free online workshops called AgH2Onward to introduce farmers and ranchers to the Agricultural Water Management program in Saskatchewan, the process and benefits of drainage approvals, and innovative techniques to best manage water on their land. The free workshops are being offered until April 2022 and include two half-day sessions.
Halifax Water will start infrastructure upgrade work on Friday that may affect the supply and quality of water in Dartmouth and surrounding areas for up to five weeks. A news release from the utility said the work being done is part of a 10-year plan to adapt water supply plants to a "changing climate." Customers in Burnside, Commodore Park, Crichton Park, Dartmouth, Eastern Passage, Ellenvale, Grahams Corner, Micmac Village, Port Wallace, Southdale, Tufts Cove, Wallace Heights, Woodside and Wrights Cove areas may experience lower water pressure, discoloured water and a change in the taste and smell of their water.
The front lawn at Habitat for Humanity in Thunder Bay, Ont., is smaller thanks to the work of some volunteers, to build a new rain garden. The garden, measuring about four metres by three metres, will help absorb water running off of the roof of the group's office and ReStore in the city. The rain garden was created with the work of volunteers on Wednesday morning. "It's one of many different techniques that you can use in an urban watershed to manage storm water runoff," said Julia Prinselaar, a program coordinator with EcoSuperior.
Maitland Conservation (MC), formerly Maitland Valley Conservation Authority (MCVA), has been monitoring two agricultural sub-watersheds to address water quality concerns and the effects of farming practices on local water. Ben Van Dieten, Agricultural Stewardship Technician, and Chris Van Esbroeck, Stewardship Services Coordinator of MC, presented their findings to date on these projects, in terms of how and when sediment and nutrients leave the landscape, and the practices they promote to reduce these losses.
The Saskatchewan government has announced a $4-billion plan to expand irrigation out of the Lake Diefenbaker reservoir. Work is set to begin immediately, and will be completed in three phases over the next decade. CBC reporter Jason Warick spoke Friday with John Pomeroy, a Canada Research chair and director of the University of Saskatchewan's Global Water Futures program.
