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.
Lopez Obrador had previously ruled out such a plant in the arid northern state of Nuevo Leon where Monterrey is the capital, because he didn’t want water-hungry factories in a region that suffers water shortages. But he said Musk’s company had offered commitments to address those concerns, including using recycled water. “There is one commitment that all the water used in the manufacture of electric automobiles will be recycled water,” Lopez Obrador said.
Each year heading into spring melt, B.C. tries its best to predict how much water will runoff into Okanagan Lake and other water bodies in the province. It’s important information as the provincial government manages the lake level using a dam in Penticton and has to strike the right balance to ensure sufficient water in the lake to last through the hot and dry summer, but not so much it causes flooding.
For the first time in seven years, residents in Prince Rupert will be able to drink water once again from Woodworth Lake, the City of Prince Rupert announced on Feb. 8. With the completion of the new Woodworth Dam in October 2022, water levels have now risen enough to return the supply to the primary source instead of Shawatlans Lake from where it has been pumped since 2016.
A woman whose husband saw a "wall of water rushing toward them" as the pair fled a massive torrent released from a North Vancouver dam is suing Metro Vancouver's regional district for negligence. The notice of civil claim filed by Chihiro Nakamura nearly two years after the incident says she and her husband were sitting on a rock in a shallow part of the Capilano River below the Cleveland Dam when they heard a rushing sound.
Weeks of baking drought across Europe have seen water levels in rivers and lakes fall to levels few can remember, exposing long-submerged treasures and a few unwanted hazards. In Spain, suffering its worst drought in decades, archaeologists have been delighted by the emergence of a prehistoric stone circle dubbed the "Spanish Stonehenge" that is usually covered by the waters of a dam.
Welcome to “What’s Up With Water,” your need-to-know news of the world’s water from Circle of Blue. I’m Eileen Wray-McCann. In Canada, Indigenous communities can now apply for billions of dollars in compensation for decades of dirty drinking water. The CBC reports that last week the claims process opened for an $8 billion settlement, which was approved three months ago by federal courts. The settlement stems from separate lawsuits filed by two Ontario First Nations over lack of clean water. Because of inadequate infrastructure, many First Nations communities in Canada have had to boil their water before drinking it. A few of these boil-water advisories have lasted for decades. First Nations communities must file their claims by December of this year. Their funds will go towards water system improvements. Individuals who have been affected can also apply for compensation, but they have until March 2023 to do so.
Ever wondered what a local lake would look like without water? That's the situation at Isintok Lake in the hills above Summerland, B.C., as crews replace an outlet pipe. The District of Summerland, just north of Penticton, emptied the lake, which serves as one of many reservoirs for the town, to fix a century-old pipe in the Isintok Dam. "After years of doing video inspections in the outlet pipes of our dam, we did discover that there was significant leakage in the pipe in Isintok that was near 100 years old," Devon van der Meulen, water utilities manager at Summerland, told CBC's Daybreak South on Tuesday.
Completed in 1973, the Army Corps of Engineers dam was designed to regulate how spring snow melt in the Kootenay River watershed (87% of which originates in Canada) enters the downstream watershed. It has done so effectively, but at a considerable price to local residents. The upper end of the reservoir in Canada bears the brunt of the storage draw down each spring, and in dry years, the reservoir’s moonscape does not always refill to a level that allows for much recreation. The control over these water levels is 100% vested in American operation of Libby dam.
Halifax’s vanishing Williams Lake could fill up again with a little help from the city, according to nearby residents. The water level had dropped by about 1.3 metres since late May when The Chronicle Herald featured one of the city’s favourite swimming lakes literally drying up on its front page in early September. But now a potential fix is being investigated for a dam that’s allowing water to flow too quickly to the sea.
The Alberta government wants to rewrite the rules on water use along the eastern slopes of the Rockies as part of its economic recovery plan, including a push for new coal developments in the area. Water use is highly restricted in southern Alberta due to concerns about supply, and new water licences cannot be issued, they have to be purchased from existing licence holders on the open market. The new plan put forward by the Alberta government would affect water pulled from the Oldman watershed above the dam.
The tiny Forest City dam on the border between Maine and New Brunswick doesn't look like much more than a pile of rusting iron and aged lumber. Plants and weeds grow throughout the rock-and-crib-style dam, which is home to a family of weasels, a rudimentary passage for fish and is used in summer by local kids to float inner tubes through its gates. The dam itself doesn't generate electricity. It was built to help loggers float their timber to local mills. But its three gates have maintained the waters of East Grand Lake on New Brunswick's western border at consistent levels for almost 180 years.
Rising water levels in the St. Lawrence Seaway could cost the economy more than $1 billion, shippers and port operators say. A new study from the Chamber of Marine Commerce warns that opening the floodgates further at a dam in Cornwall, Ont., would wash away between $1 billion and $1.75 billion in revenue for businesses on both sides of the border. A board of control recently increased the flow at the Moses Saunders Dam — the only control point on the St. Lawrence Seaway, which includes the Great Lakes — to allow 10,400 cubic metres of water per second out of Lake Ontario.
