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.
It's a problem that's costing the City of London about $1.4-million a year while adding to the risk of basement flooding. The engineering term is "inflow infiltration," but a report coming to the city's Civic Works committee on Tuesday uses a simpler one: Unwanted water. Essentially, it's water that ends up in the city's sewer system that shouldn't be there.
