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.
Levels of chloride, arsenic and aluminum in some Halifax lakes are a concern, according to a newly published Dalhousie University study. The peer-reviewed study examined four decades of water quality data from 50 lakes. It says that concentrations of aluminum in 29 per cent of the lakes, chloride in 20 per cent of the lakes and arsenic in one lake exceeded Canadian aquatic life protection guidelines.
A new water quality monitoring program has been approved for the Halifax region that will see 74 lakes sampled beginning in spring 2022. The lakes will be tested for algae blooms and E. coli, as well as phosphorus, chlorophyll and chloride. According to the municipality's manager of environment, the lakes have been chosen based on scientific criteria. "It's based on our current understanding of their vulnerabilities," said Shannon Miedema. "We do have a thousand lakes within our municipal boundaries."
The amount of road salt that people, businesses, and cities are using over the winter is likely too much and is definitely hurting local waterways, according to the Ottawa Riverkeeper. The organization began monitoring how much road salt is making its way into local creeks last winter as part of its road salt monitoring pilot project. The Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment has established federal guidelines around the amount of chloride — which is partly what salt breaks down into when it dissolves in water — in waterbodies.
For decades, Pictou Landing First Nation has lived uneasily near an industrial plant emitting brown, foul-smelling waste and the effluent treatment facility they say causes respiratory and skin illnesses. Now, the mill is being mothballed. Ms. Francis, a member of Pictou Landing First Nation, fought for years to stop toxic wastewater from the Northern Pulp plant from being pumped into a tidal estuary next to her community. After decades of court battles, environmental studies and protests, people on the Nova Scotia reserve are hopeful they may one day be able trust their water and land again.
The company responsible for cleaning up a defunct natural gas field near Fort Liard, N.W.T., says it will apply for a water licence after the territory's environmental regulator found chloride from the site is causing damage to the surrounding environment. In a June 5 letter to Paramount Resources, Environment and Natural Resources water resource officer Sonja Martin-Elson said that an inspection conducted last summer at the shuttered Pointed Mountain site found the company was in violation of the territory's Waters Act.
