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.
A spill of surface runoff from a containment pond at Suncor Energy’s Fort Hills oilsands site may have spanned more than a year, the Alberta Energy Regulator has announced. The regulator said that on Oct. 9, the energy company reported an “unplanned release” of around 662 cubic metres from the pond adjacent to Fort Hills into the Athabasca River.
The Alberta Energy Regulator says it's looking for an outside investigator to dig into a release of oilsands tailings water that wasn't made public for nine months. In a statement released Tuesday, the regulator said it's seeking a "qualified, impartial, third-party body" to consider how it notified First Nations, governments and other stakeholders about two releases at Imperial Oil's Kearl oilsands mine north of Fort McMurray, Alta.
The Diavik Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories says 450 million litres of wastewater spilled due to a broken pipeline. The spill took place on Feb. 7 but wasn't reported to the Northwest Territories government until late last week. The territorial government says pipeline operators did not initially believe it needed to be reported as the wastewater leaked into a containment pond that was its final destination.
