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.
According to the B.C. Forests Ministry, a water licence has been approved for the Church Road Well. The well was built near Gibsons last year to help support communities that rely on Chapman Lake for water. It will provide an additional three million litres of water per day to the Chapman water system. "Ideally, we would be pumping once the water quit going over the dam, because then we could save more water behind the dam,” said Leonard Lee, chair of the Sunshine Coast Regional District Board.
The City of Salmon Arm will be looking for voter approval to borrow more than $2 million for one of two water infrastructure projects deemed essential by city council. At its Monday, Feb. 12 meeting, council voted to support a loan authorization bylaw enabling the city to proceed towards an alternate approval process, through which voter assent will be sought to borrow $2,298,000 for the construction of a replacement to the Zone 5 booster (water pumping) station.
