Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

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.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

ecology

How wildfires can have a devastating, long-term impact on nearby water supplies

How wildfires can have a devastating, long-term impact on nearby water supplies

Some researchers thought her team wouldn't even be able to detect an impact from the fires because the Athabasca River was already looking like tea before the fires. Heavy rains tend to send hot fudge-looking runoff from the land into the river, making it look like chocolate milk, she said. Arriving after the fires, Emelko said she could see that hot fudge-looking flow enter the Athabasca's waters as ash, likely carrying nutrients like phosphorous and carbon, made the water supply challenging for treatment processes. "Those [workers] were living in the water treatment plant, working hard to make sure that people could return to their homes and at least have safe water to drink," Emelko told Day 6 host Brent Bambury.

Hailed as green energy source, northern Quebec lithium project divides Cree

Hailed as green energy source, northern Quebec lithium project divides Cree

According to the promoters, the region contains some of the world's largest deposits of spodumene, a rock from which lithium — key to the energy transition and the electrification of transport networks — is extracted. Nemaska Lithium describes itself as a corporation that "intends to facilitate access to green energy, for the benefit of humanity." The Whabouchi open pit mine will be located about 30 kilometres from the village of Nemaska, in the watershed of the Rupert River, considered one of Quebec's ecological gems. "If the water becomes contaminated by the mine, I don't see how we can limit the damage to the food chain," says Thomas Jolly, who was chief of Nemaska from 2015 to 2019, stressing the importance of fishing to his community.

Well water fears prompt calls to halt proposed bottling plant near B.C. village

Well water fears prompt calls to halt proposed bottling plant near B.C. village

Angie Kane knows how important well water is when you live in the heart of dry, rural B.C. For 17 years, she lived on a ranch outside Clinton, a semi-desert village about 120 kilometres northwest of Kamloops. Many residents who live outside municipal boundaries draw water from aquifers. For Kane, the arid climate always kept the importance of her water supply top of mind. "That is the biggest concern, for anyone who has a well, is will it dry up? Or will it go away?" she told CBC News.

'Canada's leading ecologist': David Schindler dead at 80

'Canada's leading ecologist': David Schindler dead at 80

David Schindler, the trailblazing researcher widely regarded for his tireless defence of Canada's freshwater systems from industrial harm, has died. Schindler rose to prominence in the 1970s and early '80s with landmark experiments that sounded the alarm on acid rain and led the federal government to ban high-phosphorus laundry detergents. His 2010 research into Alberta's oilsands pushed the government to establish independent oversight of the industry, after he showed it was contributing contaminants to the region's watershed.

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