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.
They pulled 15 tires, 13 shopping carts and five bikes out of Winnipeg's Seine River. That was just some of the trash a team from an environmental non-profit removed from the river as part of their annual summer cleanup. There was also a suitcase so heavy and full of water it tipped their canoe, three knives and children's toys. Plus, oil drums, a rollerblade, and an old projector.
The gray, two-story home with white trim toppled and slid, crashing into the river below as rushing waters carried off a bobbing chunk of its roof. Next door, a condo building teetered on the edge of the bank, its foundation already having fallen away as erosion undercut it. The destruction came over the weekend as a glacial dam burst in Alaska's capital, swelling the levels of the Mendenhall River to an unprecedented degree. The bursting of such snow-and-ice dams is a phenomenon called a jökuhlaup, and while it's relatively little-known in the U.S., researchers say such glacial floods could threaten about 15 million people around the world.
Is it possible to reduce the amount of phosphorus being released from agricultural land and into waterways, such as Lake Winnipeg, during the spring melt? It’s a question UWinnipeg Professor Dr. Darshani Kumaragamage, Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences, and her research team are trying to answer. In most parts of the world, erosion, and rain-driven runoff are the major pathways by which phosphorus from agricultural fields enter waterbodies. However, in cold climates like the Canadian prairies, flooding-induced phosphorus loss during the snowmelt period is the dominant transport mechanism of phosphorus from agricultural lands to water bodies.
Against the ravaging seas, Quebec's coastal communities have learned through bitter experience that the way to advance against climate change is to retreat. Over the past decade, civilization has been pulled back from the water's edge where possible along the eastern stretch of the Gaspé Peninsula where coastline is particularly vulnerable to erosion. Defences erected against the sea ages ago have been dismantled, rock by rock, concrete chunk by chunk.
The province says it recently concluded almost four weeks of online public consultations aimed at gathering input on design concepts for future public spaces and parkland at the site. The results of those consultations and previous public engagement events will be shared in 2023. Public access to the waterfront has been a major source of conflict to this point and the push to privatize a large portion of Ontario Place has those opposed sounding the alarm along the lake even louder.
The Wheatley River Improvement Group (WRIG) finished 14 weeks of fieldwork, enhancing and mitigating Wheatley River. During the weeks of fieldwork, WRIG staff planted or donated more than 650 native tree and shrub species. The team also planted around 500 live cuttings from red-osier dogwood shrubs directly into stream banks in areas prone to erosion.
A rock wall under construction on the beach at Point Deroche, P.E.I., is raising discussion about what is acceptable to protect the shoreline from erosion. Bryson Guptill, an avid hiker of trails and beaches, first noticed the rock wall and beach house development months ago. "It's a problem because people used to walk down that beach and walk all the way along. Now there's so much armour stone that you can't get around. Even at low tide you can't get around."
Properties on P.E.I.'s North Shore took the brunt of post-tropical storm Fiona's battering last month, and where the sea rose up and swept things away, many owners are finding they were not insured. It's called a storm surge. Winds driving water onshore combine with a high tide to raise the sea well above normal levels. Surges of more than two metres were measured in several locations during Fiona. These surges combined with metres-high waves to wreak havoc on the shore. It's a risk for all coastal properties, but climate change has made it difficult to put a price on that risk, making storm surge insurance rare.
In the wake of erosion, efforts are underway to protect a section of shoreline on the Detroit River in Windsor. The work is happening at the foot of Mill Street near HMCS Hunter and Queens Dock Park. Windsor's harbourmaster, Peter Berry, explained that exceptionally high water levels in some recent years caused flooding near the shore and there was an "incredible amount" of erosion.
Coastal GasLink has now been warned more than 50 times about environmental violations during construction of its natural gas pipeline across northern British Columbia, according to the province. In an email to CBC News, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change said it had issued a total of 51 warnings, 16 orders, and levied two fines — penalties of more than $240,000 "for repeated non-compliance" — since construction on the pipeline started in 2019.
The Junction Creek Stewardship committee is working with landowners along the waterway to help restore shoreline habitat. The effort is part of the Watersheds Canada Natural Edge Program. "When the soil and the sediment erodes into the creek, we have a lot of sediment build up which raises water levels it degrades the quality of there water," said Jessica Damaren, an environmental biologist with the committee.
A natural phenomenon at Peche Island has created a buildup of sediment that is disrupting water flow — affecting some wildlife and frequent users of the city-owned park. Low water levels and sediment in the area, which is likely the result of erosion, have created a "barrier beach" and cut off the channel that pushes water into the island's canals, according to Dan Krutsch. This barrier has caused the water in the island to become more still than usual, he said.
Heavy rainfall on Friday and warmer temperatures through the week have parts of B.C.'s Interior and North preparing for the worst, as river levels and flood risk rise. Heavy rain is expected to continue through the weekend and temperatures are forecast to stay in the high teens. Hundreds of properties in B.C. are on evacuation alert, meaning residents should be prepared to leave at a moment's notice.
A weekly news show produced with photos, videos and personal accounts from FRANCE 24 Observers around the world – all checked by our staff here in Paris. This week on The Observers, we go to Ecuador, where more than a million litres of oil spilled in the Amazon rainforest after a pipeline ruptured on January 28. The company that manages the pipeline said it was damaged by falling rocks, brought down by erosion and heavy rain, claiming that the incident "could not have been foreseen", but our Observer says that's not the whole story.
Since 2019, David Piano has used his considerable photography skills to document soil erosion along Lake Erie's north shore. Focusing on a stretch of almost 200 kilometres of lakefront from Port Burwell to Wheatley, he's captured images of crumbling cliffs and cottages swallowed by lake water eating away at the shore. Lake Erie's soil erosion problem isn't new. For years, property owners have been lobbying governments and spending thousands to combat erosion that threatens buildings, many of them seasonal cottages that have been in families for decades.
Two years after erosion at Hillman Marsh Conservation Area was considered "gravely concerning," the coastal wetland in Ontario is now undergoing restoration work to better protect it. In 2019, the Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA) told CBC News that erosion along the coastline — specifically along Wheatley Provincial Park, Hillman Marsh and Point Pelee National Park — was "active and significant."
Brock Biological Sciences Professor Liette Vasseur is helping municipalities to mitigate damage to their shorelines and plan for a more sustainable future. Vasseur is part of a Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative called the Mayors Advisory Council on Coastal Resilience. The council was established to work with mayors of municipalities on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border to develop recommendations on how to mitigate the considerable damage to their shorelines caused by erosion, flooding and other impacts, and adapt to increasing water level fluctuations and other extreme weather events.
Climate change is a deciding factor in record high water levels in the Great Lakes being higher than ever before, a University of Waterloo professor told CTV’s Your Morning on Wednesday. According to government statistics, July water levels for the bodies of water between Canada and the U.S. were at record highs. And this can lead to faster erosion of the coastline and flooding. The flooding this spring and summer along the northern shores of Lake Ontario, the Toronto Islands and some Toronto-area beaches has been particularly troublesome for homeowners and businesses.
As of Wednesday morning, water levels on Lake Ontario at Cobourg exceeded those seen in the historic 2017 flood. According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the water level at Cobourg is 75.92 metres above sea level. At its highest in 2017, the level was 75.88 metres above sea level. “We’re approximately 40 centimetres above normal,” Cobourg Mayor John Henderson said. “With the rain we got this week, I expect that 40 centimetres will be higher, approaching 60 centimetres.”
