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.
Now, there's renewed hope from an unlikely source: Corner Brook Pulp and Paper, the mill that has occupied a swath of the the city's waterfront for almost a century. The mill has its own wastewater plant that processes its own effluent, and approached the city last year with an idea to examine expanding that to include municipal sewage. "We thought it was something that would make sense to look at," said Darren Pelley, the vice president and general manager of Corner Brook Pulp and Paper.
