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.
This waterborne parasite, which is the most common intestinal parasite in Canada, can lead to some pretty nasty symptoms, including gas, diarrhea, dehydration, abdominal cramps, and nausea or vomiting. It is especially important to keep children away from the pond or to thoroughly wash their hands if they do come in contact with the water since children up to nine years old are most at risk of developing giardia symptoms, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
One of the bigger infrastructure projects scheduled for 2021 in Pincher Creek is replacing the storm drainage system along Church Avenue, Willow Street and Poplar Avenue. As part of the 2021 capital budget, $377,042.20 will be used to begin replacing the old storm sewer. Pincher Creek’s drainage system is also getting a legal boost after council approved all three readings for a new storm drainage bylaw, Bylaw 1630-21. Among other things, the bylaw lays out what can and cannot be released into storm drains.
After 14 years of battling Alberta regulators and the fracking industry over a water well contaminated with methane and chemicals, Jessica Ernst says she feels incalculable grief and anger. On April 1, 2021, her tortuous legal crusade — which included a controversial detour to the Supreme Court of Canada — came to an end with no resolution. What one Alberta lawyer dubbed “the legal saga of the decade” is over. Court of Queen’s Bench Judge J.T. Eamon accepted applications from Encana and the Alberta government to dismiss the case due to inactivity on the file for three years. “It was inevitable,” says Ernst who was informed three weeks after the dismissal. “The rules are the rules.”
“They cut corners every day, every day,” said Justin Gee, vice-president of First Nations Engineering Services Ltd. Gee said he encountered these recurring problems while overseeing the work of a construction firm, Kingdom Construction Limited (KCL), building a water treatment plant 10 years ago in Wasauksing First Nation, along the eastern shore of Georgian Bay, about 250 kilometres north of Toronto. “You have to be on them every step of the way,” said Gee, who was the contract administrator on the project. “You can’t leave them on their own.”
