Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

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.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

non-point sources

Over $20M to support water quality improvement projects by region's farmers

Over $20M to support water quality improvement projects by region's farmers

Farmers in Waterloo Region have reached a milestone in making farm improvements to protect water quality. As of December 2020, more than $20 million in total capital projects have been completed through support from the Region’s Rural Water Quality Program (RWQP). The RWQP provides financial and technical assistance to farmers implementing voluntary projects to improve and protect water quality. Funded by the Region of Waterloo, the program started in 1998 to address non-point sources of sediment and nutrients and to protect groundwater.

Stopping algae blooms may start on farmlands

Stopping algae blooms may start on farmlands

A handful of Chatham farms might hold the answer to reducing toxic algae blooms in the Great Lakes. These farms are collecting and analyzing their agricultural runoff, in hope of reducing the amount of phosphorus entering the waterways. It's part of a project, started by two organizations in Spring 2016, which aims to come up with a strategy to deal with toxic algae blooms. Out of that idea for the project — between the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative — came the Thames River Phosphorus Reduction Collaborative.

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