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.
A collaboration between climate scientists and Salt Spring’s largest water utility is yielding data — and a plan to improve both forest health and drinking water security for the island. Trustees of the North Salt Spring Waterworks District (NSSWD) heard an update from Transition Salt Spring’s Climate Adaptation Research Lab (CARL) scientist Ruth Waldick at their monthly meeting Thursday, Feb. 23, covering information collected upon — and current plans for — the Maxwell Lake Watershed.
Justin Thompson and Matt Kumlin walk up a hill toward a ridge in the Alberta foothills as a border collie and “cow-dog-in-training” named Newt tags along. At the top of the ridge, the snow-capped Rocky Mountains are visible to the west. Calgary’s downtown is about 40 kilometres to the east. More than six square kilometres of the property around them has been protected by the Kumlin family with a conservation easement, which restricts land uses that could damage its ecological health.
The City of Kamloops is taking additional steps to protect residential drinking water. Council on Tuesday (Sept. 20) authorized a new cross connection control program, enforcement measures and spending of about $100,000 on a full-time staff member. Bylaws were read for the first three times and will return to council for adoption at a later date. Mayor Ken Christian and councillors Dale Bass, Dieter Dudy, Sadie Hunter, Bill Sarai, Kathy Sinclair, Arjun Singh and Denis Walsh voted in favour.
‘Water sustains us, flows between us, within us, and replenishes us. Water is the giver of all life, and, without clean water, all life will perish.’—Assembly of First Nations “No human being, no animal or plant, can live without its water,” says Dawn Martin-Hill, co-founder of the Indigenous Studies program at Hamilton’s McMaster University. For centuries, the Unist’ot’en people have called Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia home. Their way of life is such that they can drink straight from the pristine Morice River (Wedzin Kwah) that flows through their land. Last year, construction began on the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline, posing a direct threat to the Morice. “We call it sweet water,” said Martin-Hill. “We had that everywhere. We had it here in Ontario.” “You know it when you’re drinking it. I’d rather have sweet water over running water.”
