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.
P.E.I. issued another blue-green algae bloom advisory on Wednesday, after the microscopic organisms causing the phenomenon were found in Murray River's MacLures Pond. Just a day before, the province announced it had discovered blue-green algae in Black Pond near Souris. That was the first time in two years that such a bloom had been reported in the province.
As glorious as Alberta summers can be, they come with their own set of problems, like blue-green algae. Unfortunately for eager campers and swimmers, the blooms — which happen every year — can effectively shut down lakes. So, what exactly is blue-green algae? Blue-green algae or cyanobacteria forms in slow-moving, shallow waters and is usually the result of an excess of nitrogen and phosphorus. These nutrients are essential for plant growth, but big blooms of the bacteria are largely caused by human activity like agriculture or residential development.
Love Your Lake is a national evaluation program developed by the Canadian Wildlife Federation and Watersheds Canada. So far it’s gathered information on 35,000 shoreline properties across the country. The project recently expanded to Nova Scotia beginning with Porters Lake, a 19-kilometre long lake on the Eastern Shore. “We will be conducting the assessments on the water with volunteer boaters and we don’t actually go on the properties, on the parcels, at all,” said Hebb, a fourth-year environmental studies student at Saint Mary's University. “We just take our assessment data sheets and we fill those out and then we log them in our data software.”
The Government of Canada is further investing in research to better inform the protection of our oceans, lakes, rivers and waterways and the many species that call them home. The unfortunate reality is that microplastics and pharmaceuticals enter our water systems due to human activity. This means we must continue to study and understand the threats that our ecosystems face.
