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.
Snow-wise, it hasn't been a great year in the Rocky Mountains, says Canmore-based water expert John Pomeroy. "[The snowpack] is in the lowest quarter to lowest 10 per cent of all years measured over the last half century in the Kananaskis-Banff region," said Pomeroy, who is Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change at the University of Saskatchewan. "It's definitely a low snow year."
Despite some heavy rains and an earlier than normal spring in Thunder Bay Ont., the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority (LRCA) is not forecasting significant flooding in the area. CEO Tammy Cook said despite recent rains, rivers in the northwestern Ontario city are experiencing water levels that occur about once every five years. "We aren't seeing any significant flooding at this time," she said. "We are anticipating up to another 20 millimetres overnight, but we still think that area water courses will remain within their banks," Cook told CBC News in an interview Monday.
