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.
It's a sight Andrew Arreak says he's never seen before in Pond Inlet: open water at a time when the sea ice should be thick enough to sled on. Some people are still going out in boats. Others are finding alternate ways of accessing the land, since the ice they rely on for hunting and fishing is now a month late forming. In the Arctic hamlet of about 1,600 people, high winds keep pushing the sea ice away from the community, Arreak said.
The Northwest Territories hamlet has spent years coming up with a plan to move some homes away from its rapidly eroding coast, but the problem could be complicated by erosion of an island that currently protects Tuktoyaktuk’s harbour. With less sea ice cover, storms have more open water across which to whip up waves that can batter the community and hasten erosion.
Aklavik has begun delivering water again after a software problem affecting a computer at the hamlet’s water plant was resolved. A system error earlier this week meant the hamlet could not monitor water quality and, as a result, trucks were told to stop delivering water to homes, acting senior administrator Tom Ng said on Wednesday. Initially, technicians in British Columbia had struggled to fix the error remotely.
An oily container confused for a clean one is what left half of Sachs Harbour, N.W.T., without usable tap water for a month this past spring, according to government emails obtained by CBC. On March 23, a do not consume advisory was issued from the territory's chief environmental health officer after the smell of fuel and an oily sheen was found in water deliveries, according to a news release at the time.
The communities of Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte should be on high alert for possible flooding in the coming days, warns the Northwest Territories government. In a news release Wednesday, the territory said warm weather means the snowmelt from mountains in BC, Yukon and the N.W.T. is starting to make its way into the water system. That will contribute to high water levels and flow in the Liard and South Nahanni rivers.
Some people in Sachs Harbour, N.W.T are still being told not to drink the water that comes out of their taps — until a water sample for each affected home or building shows it is safe to drink. The entire community was advised, on March 23, not to drink delivered water because it smelled of fuel and had an oily sheen. Since then, Jeremy Bird, a spokesperson for the territory's department of health, told CBC News the community had been cleared to distribute water using an alternative water truck two days later.
Nicole Hancock, the executive director of the Safe Drinking Water Foundation, said systems exist that would take care of all contaminants and produce water that "would taste and smell great."
"I think that they should build a high quality treatment plant for a fraction of the cost," said Hancock. "We think that it would cost them less than $500,000. That's less than one-sixth of the cost."
"I don't think they've looked into these options," said Heney. "I don't think they want this town to stay here."
