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.
No matter where I travel in this world, whenever I say I’m from Canada, the reaction is almost always “Ah Canada … Niagara Falls.” Over 25-million tourists come every year to this historic eighth wonder of the world in order to watch water fall over a cliff. Although it’s now Canada’s greatest tourist attraction with two casinos and a convention centre, Niagara Falls once served as the key battleground for the War of 1812. Here then is a brief history of Niagara Falls as told by, OK, me.
This month of The Catch features stories from our partners in the Great Lakes News Collaborative. The collaborative’s investigation of the cost of water in the Great Lakes region was the focus of the latest episode. Toronto-based journalist Andrew Reeves discusses a piece he wrote for Great Lakes Now about the history and current issues in Canadian water infrastructure. Similarly to the United States, Canada’s water system saw a substantial drop in funding in the decades after World War II. However, in 2000, when a drinking water tragedy hit the city of Walkerton, Ontario, officials took action and began to invest in infrastructure and safety.
Eileen Delehanty Pearkes has been researching and writing about the history and politics of water in the upper Columbia Basin since 2005. Her book on the Columbia River Treaty, A River Captured, was released in 2016. Pearkes has agreed to help readers of The Nelson Daily understand the importance of the Columbia River Treaty to the region in her column River Talk. Today, Pearkes writes about the push from 21 members of the United States Congress for President Joe Biden to get his administration involved in Treaty negotiations.
Completed in 1973, the Army Corps of Engineers dam was designed to regulate how spring snow melt in the Kootenay River watershed (87% of which originates in Canada) enters the downstream watershed. It has done so effectively, but at a considerable price to local residents. The upper end of the reservoir in Canada bears the brunt of the storage draw down each spring, and in dry years, the reservoir’s moonscape does not always refill to a level that allows for much recreation. The control over these water levels is 100% vested in American operation of Libby dam.
