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.
Beyond ruining a perfectly good soccer pitch, the kilogram of daily droppings a single adult Canada goose can produce can also contaminate water and cause algae blooms that steal oxygen and block sunlight for underwater plants. Local birder Geoffrey Newell said they can also be aggressive birds and sometimes steal food from ducks and other goose species. He noted this doesn’t apply to Canada geese fully native to B.C., which migrate to the Arctic in winter.
As sunshine starts to warm up the city, melting snow is revealing all kinds of litter, including massive amounts of cigarette butts discarded over the winter. For the first time, London's Environmental Network has signed the city up for a Butt Blitz, a national campaign to get as much of the disgusting litter off the street during the month of April. "For the month, we encourage people to pick up cigarette butts and at the end of the month to drop them off at a location and we'll send them off to get recycled," said the networks head, Skylar Franke.
WARNING: This story contains graphic images of piled-up pig carcasses The Castanet story quoted an Upper Similkameen Indian Band official saying the massive amount of biowaste may contaminate the river and groundwater, something Ocejo says isn't true. The band also sent a letter of complaint to the Town of Princeton on Jan. 11, saying its staff discovered the colossal amount of hog carcasses at the Net Zero Waste facility on Dec.10, and found that leachate and contaminated water were flowing directly from the facility to the Similkameen River's surrounding areas.
