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.
Emerging contaminants, such as medicine and other industrial waste, have been found in the waters of Granby, Bromont and Cowansville, even after being treated, according to a local environmental committee. Reports from the Organisme de bassin versant de la Yamaska (OBV) show concerning data for the environment, despite Quebec's director of public health, Luc Boileau, saying last week that water in the province is very drinkable.
Dr. Erik Krogh, a Vancouver Island University (VIU) Chemistry Professor, is expanding the frontiers of mass spectrometry to develop real-time measurements of emerging contaminants in real-world samples. Access to clean air, water and food is critical to the quality of life in Canada, said Krogh, who is also Co-Director of VIU’s Applied Environmental Research Laboratories. Thousands of chemical pollutants enter the environment as individual compounds or complex mixtures during their production, use and disposal at concentrations that vary widely over time and space. Existing tools to measure the impact of these pollutants on the environment are costly and time intensive, which limits their widespread use.
