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.
Sample results are in but the water in Puslinch is still stinky and private well owners are told it is their responsibility to treat their water. “The results show odour causing organics were detected in untreated well water,” said in an update from the Township of Puslinch website with information provided by the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP).
Canada is privileged to have abundant clean drinking water, but that’s not the case globally. Nearly one-third of people worldwide don’t have access to clean drinking water due to microbes and other contaminants, a problem that Manoj Singh thinks he can solve with technology. Singh founded Acuva in 2014 with a mission to enable clean drinking water using technology and so far he’s secured $8.4 million in growth financing to do it.
If you have an interest in water sustainability issues including drinking water and sanitation, water governance, and international climate issues, this speaker series is for you! The United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) and was named the UNAI Hub for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: Clean Water and Sanitization, in 2018. Starting September 19th, the UM UNAI Hub will be hosting six virtual presentations from various UM researchers.
The scientists analyzed the biofilm: the plastics were covered in bacteria, including some known to make us sick. They found pathogenic bacteria responsible for causing urinary tract, skin, and stomach infections, pneumonia, and other illnesses. To make matters worse, these bacteria were also carrying a wide range of genes for antimicrobial resistance. “Plastics that you find in the water are rapidly colonized by bacteria, including pathogens,” says Vos. “And it doesn’t really matter what plastic it is.”
Researchers from three Maritime universities are hoping microbes collected from the bottom of a lake near an abandoned gold mine in Dartmouth, N.S., will provide a model for how to clean up contaminated sites across the province in a quicker and less-intrusive way. Last May, a research team took a boat to the middle of Lake Charles, not far from the former Montague gold mine, where extensive mining took place from 1860 to about 1940.
