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.
An aquatic invasive species has been discovered at a lake in Riding Mountain National Park, according to Parks Canada. This month, preliminary test results from water samples collected at Boat Cove in Clear Lake throughout the summer suggested the presence of zebra mussels, a spokesperson for Parks Canada told CBC News on Monday.
Where sand dunes disappear on Sable Island, so does the underground freshwater supply, according to new research underscoring the importance of dunes to the island's ecosystem. The dunes serve as a natural barrier, protecting against the relentless waves and temporary salinization of groundwater caused by ocean flooding. Dunes also help refresh the water table by funnelling water from rain and snow into aquifers that, in some places, are 40 metres deep.
About 90% of water samples taken over the last 10 years from the Great Lakes contain microplastic levels that are unsafe for wildlife, a new peer-reviewed paper from the University of Toronto finds. About 20% of those samples are at the highest level of risk, but the study’s authors say the damage can be reversed if the US and Canada quickly act. “Ninety per cent is a lot,” said Eden Hataley, a University of Toronto researcher and study co-author. “We need to answer some basic questions by monitoring … so we can quantify risks to wildlife and humans.”
The city of St. Albert, Alta., is returning to regular water consumption after its reservoirs were replenished Tuesday. The city had originally asked residents and business owners to conserve water Monday, saying that the reservoirs were at “near critical” levels, but they are now at “normal levels.” “The city is now returning to all essential and non-essential water use including activities such as street sweeping, washing city vehicles, filling pools, hydrant flushing and firefighter training, as needed,” said the city.
While 2022 was the driest year since water bottling companies began monitoring, BlueTriton consultants and officials maintained the company’s water taking for bottling purposes is sustainable. BlueTriton, the conglomerate who purchased Nestle Waters Canada’s operations in 2021, held a sparsely-attended in-person meeting Thursday morning at the Puslinch Community Centre going over 2022 annual monitoring reports for its wells in Aberfoyle and Erin where it has permits to take water for bottling purposes.
The Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation (LSCFN) claims that remediation work at an abandoned mine site in its traditional territory is only making things worse and so they are asking the Yukon Water Board to step in and change things. The subject of LSCFN’s complaint is the Mount Nansen mine site, a former gold and silver project located west of Carmacks that was heralded as an environmental disaster and an embarrassment to Canada, the Yukon and the mining firm involved when it was abandoned in 1999.
The recent federal budget pledged $650 million over 10 years to support monitoring, assessment and restoration work related to fresh water across the country, including the Great Lakes and Lake Simcoe. Also on the table was $22.6 million over three years to better support co-ordination of efforts to protect freshwater across Canada. There was also $85.1 million over five years for the creation of the Canada Water Agency.
WWF-Canada welcomes important investments in the 2023 federal budget to maintain momentum toward protecting and restoring 30 per cent of land and waters by 2030, including a new Canada Water Agency; monitoring, assessing and restoring key freshwater ecosystems; protection of endangered whales and their habitats; and ongoing support for species at risk.
Philadelphia officials say the city's water is safe to drink for now after a chemical spill in a local river. A pipe ruptured on Friday at chemical plant Trinseo PLC, leaking hazardous material into a tributary of the Delaware River, a source of water for millions of people. Officials asked people to drink bottled water, leading to empty shelves. But local authorities said later on Sunday there had been no contamination in the city's water system.
Parks Canada says genetic traces of zebra mussels found in a recent water sample taken from Clear Lake aren’t cause for undue concern. Although tests for environmental DNA for the invasive species came back positive last month, it could have come to the lake on a boat, water toy or other source, without the transfer of any living mussels. Living organisms like zebra mussels, which originated from the lakes of southern Russia and Ukraine and were introduced to many countries worldwide in the 1980s, shed DNA all the time, says Borden Smid, resource conservation manager with Parks Canada.
Water levels on the Assiniboine River and shorelines may create unsafe conditions in the weeks to come as outflow from the Shellmouth dam is increased, Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure warns. The water level is expected to rise by one to two feet between the Shellmouth Dam and Brandon, 160 km southeast of the dam. The expected rise is the result of water released from the Shellmouth Reservoir to make room for spring's flow.
Inside the Pine Creek wastewater treatment plant in the south of Calgary, a lab run by the University of Calgary is busy processing wastewater samples from municipalities across the province. This lab, along with one operated by the University of Alberta, started tracing levels of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in wastewater in early 2020 — providing Alberta Health Services with infection trends in different communities. Now the project has expanded to check for influenza A and B, as well as RSV — respiratory viruses that are all currently putting a strain on Alberta's health care system.
It took until 2022, but water finally made it onto the official agenda of a UN Climate Change Conference. ‘Water Day’ was designated for November 14 at the recent COP27 climate change conference in Egypt where 190 countries had assembled to discuss climate action. Water Day discussions covered water scarcity, drought, early warning systems, and cross boundary cooperation, with one entire session devoted to the critical importance of monitoring and managing river basin systems.
The status of Lake Huron is good and unchanging — and it needs constant monitoring to make sure it stays that way, says a scientist with a local environmental association. In late July, the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Environment and Climate Change Canada released its State of the Great Lakes 2022 Report. The report, typically produced every two years, is part of the 1972 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between Canada and the United States and based on nine indicators of ecosystem health, such as drinking water, fish consumption, and beach closures.
Waste-water surveillance indicates the Omicron surge in COVID-19 cases appears to have plateaued or even begun to fall in major cities across British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario, but this type of monitoring is carried out on less than two-thirds of Canada’s population. Sampling sewage to find population-level transmission trends is one of the most reliable methods of tracking the spread of COVID-19 as the swift spread of Omicron has swamped testing regimes across Canada.
Heavy storms don’t automatically create a greater risk to drinking water for residents in the Great Lakes region, but increased monitoring and better co- ordinated health data collection is needed, according to a report released by the International Joint Commission. The IJC is a binational government body assigned to tackle issues of concern on shared waterways between the two countries. Health professionals assigned by the IJC first began looking at data in connection with drinking water back in 2015 and determined that heavy storms — increasing in numbers due to climate change — warranted a closer look.
A $1 device developed at Dalhousie University in Halifax that can help detect COVID-19 in wastewater has been shipped across Canada and around the world to help researchers and public health in the battle against the deadly respiratory illness. The device is a small, spherical cage that contains an absorbent pad to collect samples from sewer systems. The specimens are then analyzed using lab equipment to determine whether COVID-19 is present in the wastewater.
Water usage on Monday was up 20% from Sunday. The water treatment plants are operating at slightly below full capacity. We will be monitoring water demand closely this week as forecasted temperatures rise and anticipate it could be close to peak availability. Alternate water sources continue to be available for the farm, industrial, and residential. Please contact your municipality for additional fill stations not listed below.
The amount of road salt that people, businesses, and cities are using over the winter is likely too much and is definitely hurting local waterways, according to the Ottawa Riverkeeper. The organization began monitoring how much road salt is making its way into local creeks last winter as part of its road salt monitoring pilot project. The Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment has established federal guidelines around the amount of chloride — which is partly what salt breaks down into when it dissolves in water — in waterbodies.
The public looks to Environment Canada to predict the weather in the sky but their work is also used to predict floods and climate change. Hydrometric technologist Cody Garbutt comes to Prince Albert every two months to collect data about the North Saskatchewan River. It’s one of 170 hydrological monitoring stations in Saskatchewan that are run by Environment and Climate Change Canada.
