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.
Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. must pay an Indigenous band in Wisconsin more than US$5 million in Line 5 profits and relocate the controversial cross-border pipeline within the next three years, a U.S. judge says. A rupture on territory that belongs to the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa would constitute a clear public nuisance under federal law, district court Judge William Conley said in a decision late Friday.
The controversial Canada-U.S. oil and gas conduit known as Line 5 could be facing its toughest challenger yet: the very watershed the pipeline's detractors are trying to protect. Spring flooding has washed away significant portions of the riverbank where Line 5 intersects Wisconsin's Bad River, a meandering, 120-kilometre course through Indigenous territory that feeds Lake Superior and a complex network of ecologically delicate wetlands.
Lopez Obrador had previously ruled out such a plant in the arid northern state of Nuevo Leon where Monterrey is the capital, because he didn’t want water-hungry factories in a region that suffers water shortages. But he said Musk’s company had offered commitments to address those concerns, including using recycled water. “There is one commitment that all the water used in the manufacture of electric automobiles will be recycled water,” Lopez Obrador said.
Luann Smith will be paying close attention to what Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu has to say on Monday about the federal government's willingness to fund a pipeline that will bring clean drinking water to Oneida Nation of the Thames. Smith, 67, is a lifelong resident of Oneida, a community that has been under a boil water advisory since 2019. Hajdu is scheduled to be a guest on Monday's edition of London Morning and will speak with host Rebecca Zandbergen about the situation.
An ageing pipeline crossing part of the Great Lakes has led to a standoff between the US state of Michigan and Canada. The outcome of the battle over Line 5, which delivers energy to the US Midwest and central Canada, will be viewed by many as a bellwether of how North America will balance its energy future with its environmental commitments. The most contentious part of the Line 5 pipeline - which runs from Superior, Wisconsin, by way of Michigan to Sarnia, Canada - sits on the bed of the Straits of Mackinac. The narrow waterway connects Lake Michigan and Lake Huron - two of the world's largest lakes.
Drivers had something new to observe on Highway 35, this past week, at the point informally known as Hopper’s Hill, featuring the Omineca Ski Club at the base. A long hose was unmistakably strung out along the long incline. It is at least six kilometres in length. It was a topic of watercooler chatter since it appeared. It was natural to surmise that it had something to do with the industrial activity not too far beyond the apex of the hill. That’s where the installation work is being done to build the natural gas pipeline through the area.
Wet’suwet’en land defenders in Canada are at risk of serious human rights violations as the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline has reportedly begun under the Wedzin Kwa (Morice River), said Amnesty International today. “The decision to allow the construction of the Coastal Gaslink pipeline on Wet’suwet’en lands without the free, prior, and informed consent of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs is a brazen violation of the community’s right to self-determination and a lamentable step backwards in Canada’s journey toward reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. Moreover, expansion of fossil fuels extraction and infrastructure is against Canada’s obligation to protect human rights from the worst impacts of the climate crisis,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada (English-Speaking). “Amnesty International Canada calls on the governments of Canada and B.C. to halt pipeline construction in the traditional, unceded territories of the Wet’suwet’en.”
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer abandoned a lawsuit Tuesday aimed at shutting down an oil pipeline that runs through part of the Great Lakes but said the state would continue pursuing a separate case with the same goal. Whitmer's legal maneuver followed a federal judge's decision earlier this month to retain jurisdiction over a suit brought by Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. after the state revoked an easement allowing Line 5 to cross the Straits of Mackinac.
The underwater pipeline that leaked more than 550,000 litres of oil into the water off Southern California was split open and apparently dragged more than 30 metres along the ocean floor, possibly by a ship's anchor, officials said Tuesday. The segment of the pipe that was dragged was 1.2 kilometres long, and had a gash that was more than 30 centimetres wide, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
I have been opposed to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion since day one. The extraction of oil from Alberta's tar sands is one of the most environmentally unfriendly things that Canada does, and uses large amounts of energy and fresh water to achieve its goal. However, I also understand that the pipeline expansion is one of the major components of the FIPA trade deal that Stephen Harper ratified with China in 2014, and if Canada didn't expand the capacity of the pipeline that there would be major consequences and penalties with international tribunals.
Water activists are calling on Canadian officials to back Michigan's efforts to close the Line 5 dual pipelines, which have spilled more than a million gallons of oil into the Straits of Mackinac and surrounding waters. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered Canadian natural gas company Enbridge Energy to close Line 5 in May, but they have ignored the order while challenging it in court.
Rural communities near Prince Albert want to turn the taps on a $45 million water project. The Town of Shellbrook and the RM of Shellbrook have struck a steering committee with the Prince Albert Rural Water Utility (PARWU), spending $60,000 on studying a new water treatment plant with connecting pipelines to the communities, according to its terms of reference. “I really believe that building a water treatment plant will open the door to other communities to get good water,” noted Brent Miller, who is the steering committee chair and a Town of Shellbrook councillor.
This time of year, with the temperature plunging below -20 C, a snowmobile and an ice chisel are required tools for anyone in Tataskweyak Cree Nation in need of fresh water. There’s the bottled stuff, trucked into town courtesy of the federal government, but the weekly shipment of 1,500 cases is only sufficient to meet basic consumption needs. For cleaning, cooking and basic hygiene water, many residents need a supplementary source. And rather than use their tainted tap water, they follow a snowmobile trail several kilometres to Assean Lake, pails in hand.
Less than two months after a spill at an oil pipeline dumped 900,000 litres of contaminated water–so called “produced water”–in northwestern Alberta, there’s been another spill in the oil-rich province. The latest spill, reported at 2 p.m on Christmas Day by a local landowner, occurred near Drayton Valley, a community about 130 kilometres southwest of Edmonton, the province’s capital city. Drayton Valley was the site of a spill–the result of a ruptured pipeline–that dumped 40,000 litres of crude oil into a local creek in August, 2019.
An Indigenous-led group plans to offer to buy a majority stake in the Trans Mountain oil pipeline from the Canadian government this week or next, a deal that could help Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mitigate election-year criticism from environmentalists. The group, called Project Reconciliation, aims to submit the $6.9 billion offer as early as Friday, managing director Stephen Mason told Reuters, and start negotiations with Ottawa two weeks later. Project Reconciliation said the investment will alleviate First Nations poverty, a watershed for Indigenous people who have historically watched Canada’s resources enrich others.
Nova Scotians now have access to the details of Northern Pulp's controversial plan to build a new effluent treatment plant and discharge pipeline that will empty into the Northumberland Strait. The plan put forward to the Environment Department is to build a "biological activated sludge" treatment facility purchased from a Paris-based multinational corporation called Veolia Water Technologies.
The protesters in northern British Columbia had camped out for days amid bitter cold and deep snow, manning a checkpoint to prevent construction vehicles from entering the territory of the Wet’suwet’en nation. Their demonstrations, part of a fight against a multibillion-dollar natural gas pipeline, galvanized supporters across the country and at his town hall meeting, the prime minister was forced to content with a barrage of angry questions.
Representatives for the town of Pictou, N.S., did not learn the proposed route for a new effluent pipe from Northern Pulp would cross their watershed until the plan was made public in media reports. Officials from the pulp mill met with Pictou Landing First Nation officials and fishermen's associations several weeks ago to detail the new proposed route after problems were discovered with the original route.
The Coldwater Indian Band, which asserts traditional territories in south-central B.C., said the pipeline route passes an aquifer that is the sole supply of drinking water for its main reserve “This is a major victory for my community,” said Coldwater Chief Lee Spahan. “Thankfully, the court has stepped in where Canada has failed to protect and respect our rights and our water.”
