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.
Canada's oil sands mining industry on Thursday outlined proposals to release treated water from tailings ponds into northern Alberta's Athabasca River, a move environmental groups say risks damaging one of the world's largest freshwater deltas. Unlike other extractive industries in Canada, oil sands firms are not allowed to release treated tailings water.
Council for the Municipality of the District of St. Mary’s is staying neutral on the wilderness area status of Archibald Lake, a position that has the president of the local river association accusing them of “shirking their duty.” At last week’s committee of the whole meeting (July 7), councillors neither supported nor opposed the St. Mary’s River Association’s (SMRA’s) year-long campaign to seek provincial protection of Archibald Lake, about 10 kilometres northeast of Sherbrooke, from extractive industries like Atlantic Gold, which wants to build a water-intensive mine at nearby Cochrane Hill.
