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.
"For the first time coming to the island since I was a little child, I saw corn growing," Diabo, council chief responsible for the environment portfolio at the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke, said at a news conference Wednesday announcing the completion of the nearly decade-long project to restore water flow in the bay and naturalize its surroundings.
The clear waves of New Brunswick's Murray Beach Provincial Park draw crowds of swimmers each summer, yet it's located metres away from the campground's sewage lagoon. With the park closed for the season, a project is underway to have tubes and pipes flush that wastewater directly into a marsh. Nearby residents of Murray Corner, about 50 minutes southeast of Moncton, have been questioning the work and worry it could contaminate wells and flow into the ocean.
