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.
Renowned water scientist Dr. Jay Famiglietti (PhD), lead researcher of a scientific team that in late December published a paper in the prestigious Nature Communications journal detailing what their analysis indicates, has a blunt message: “All around the world, we have been kicking the can down the road for a long time on effectively managing groundwater. Now we are at the end of the road, and it’s a dead end.”
Our world is composed of gradients in time and space and how we manage our gradients will determine our future. The transition from cropland to riparian vegetation, to macrophytes, and to open water at a prairie wetland near Saskatoon emphasizes the tenuous interface between production agriculture and water quality and quantity impacts on the Canadian Prairies.
Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTEK), a leading provider of high-end consulting and engineering services, announced today that it has further expanded its sustainable water management practice with the addition of Piteau Associates, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Established in 1976 by Dr. Douglas R. Piteau, the firm is a global leader in sustainable natural resource analytics including hydrologic numerical modeling and dewatering system design.
Angie Kane knows how important well water is when you live in the heart of dry, rural B.C. For 17 years, she lived on a ranch outside Clinton, a semi-desert village about 120 kilometres northwest of Kamloops. Many residents who live outside municipal boundaries draw water from aquifers. For Kane, the arid climate always kept the importance of her water supply top of mind. "That is the biggest concern, for anyone who has a well, is will it dry up? Or will it go away?" she told CBC News.
A multidisciplinary research team from the University of Saskatchewan (USask) has been awarded $289,000 for a project to develop water security solutions that contribute to enhanced gender equity in the West African nations of Ghana and Senegal, where women and girls are hit hardest by impacts of climate change. Funding from the Queen Elizabeth Scholars Advanced Scholar (QES—AS) program will help the team to mentor and develop leadership, professional and research skills of advanced scholars (PhD students, post-doctoral fellows and early career researchers)—eight from West Africa and two from Canada—under an exchange program geared to enhancing research capacity on the nexus of hydrology, health and gender studies, and socioeconomics.
A new University of Saskatchewan smartphone app will help farmers and communities identify hotspots of nutrient contamination in freshwaters and possibly predict where algae blooms — slimy, plant-like green organisms that hinder water quality — are likely to grow. “Tracking how and where agricultural nutrients, which help crops grow, may be washed away with rainfalls and snowmelt is a major concern for both researchers and the public, and that’s where our app comes in,” said Environment and Climate Change Canada scientist Diogo Costa.
