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 boil-water notice has been issued for the entire city of Prince Rupert, B.C., after its aging water system suffered multiple breaks on Tuesday night. Mayor Herb Pond described the situation in the city of 12,000 people as "armageddon-like," with water gushing out of the ground, washing out streets and flooding people's basements.
Lake Newell, a reservoir south of Brooks, Alta. that helps feed water to farmland as well as various municipal, industrial, wildlife and recreational areas, is less than half the level it should be heading into winter. The lake is a part of the Eastern Irrigation District (EID), an area east of Calgary bound by the Red Deer river to the north, and the Bow River to the south. On Sept. 25, EID shut down its irrigation season roughly two weeks ahead of when it normally would, due to dry conditions throughout the summer that have strained water supply.
Some residents of B.C.'s West Kootenay region say they're worried about water levels in the Arrow Lakes amid a historic drought and high temperatures that triggered an early snowpack melt. They're calling on B.C. Hydro, which uses the Arrow Lakes as a reservoir to generate power, to do more to preserve valuable salmon habitats and recreation spots.
In April 2022, the Minister of Energy announced that Ontario is advancing work to develop the Niagara Hydrogen Centre, led by Atura Power. This project would increase the amount of low-carbon hydrogen produced in Ontario by eight times by using excess water at Niagara Falls that would otherwise be sent over the falls to generate clean electricity for low-carbon hydrogen production. This low-carbon hydrogen could then be sold to fuel transportation or industry or injected into a natural gas generating station to lower its carbon intensity.
A boil water advisory has been issued for the village of Alma, about 79 kilometres south of Moncton, because of high levels of turbidity in the reservoir. "These levels exceed the New Brunswick maximum acceptable concentrations," a notice issued by the local government on Wednesday morning says. Recent heavy rainfall caused the problem, according to chief administrative officer Hanna Downey — a drastic change from last weekend when the village almost ran out of water and had to urge residents to conserve as much as possible.
Construction of the project began in May of 2021. The project included twinning a portion of the EK Raw Water line, building a Rural 44 Water Pipeline Utility (R44WPU) reservoir and pumphouse, upgrading the Town of Eston water treatment plant, and installing more than 300 km of water distribution line. All this work was completed by March 2023.
In the Las Vegas area, ornamental lawns are already banned, swimming pool sizes are limited, almost all water inside homes is recycled, "water cops" patrol for leaks and fountains on the Las Vegas Strip use reclaimed water. Water agencies in Southern California, Phoenix and Salt Lake City joined last year in widening calls to rip out thirsty turf. The new law pushes the region ahead of other places in the U.S. West in efforts to crack down on water wasters. But it's not a first. A water district serving homes in a celebrity enclave near Los Angeles threatened last year to slow deliveries to a trickle for wealthy customers who find monetary fines no deterrent to busting their water budgets.
New Jersey’s Canoe Brook Water Treatment plant produces 14 millions gallons of drinking water a day. Each one of those gallons weighs around 8 pounds , so it’s quickly apparent that a large amount of energy is needed to move water from a reservoir to the treatment plant and into the 84,000 homes and businesses that the New Jersey American Water Company serves in the area. So the water utility partnered with NJR Clean Energy Ventures, the renewable energy subsidiary of the natural gas firm New Jersey Resources, for a solution. NJR Clean Energy Ventures built a vast array of solar panels, linked them together, and placed them on the surface of the water at Canoe Brook Reservoir.
In 1967, when the Gardiner Dam backed up the South Saskatchewan River to create the 200-km-long Lake Diefenbaker in the middle of Saskatchewan, the plan was to irrigate 500,000 parched acres. To this day, the giant T-shaped lake — named after Saskatchewan politician and Canada’s 13th Prime Minister, John George Diefenbaker — irrigates only 100,000 to 150,000 acres. “The Dief” is, one might say, an untapped resource, a ’60s-era feat of engineering stuck in vaporization mode. (It is said the lake loses more water to evaporation each year than it gives up for crop watering.)
Following some drier weather recently, City of Nanaimo officials are advising residents to be cautious with water consumption as spring progresses. Mike Squire, city water resources manager, said the Jump Creek reservoir is 91 per cent full currently, which is above average and trending upward. The snowpack is at about 2.4 metres, which is slightly below the median historical average, he said, and while there was a lot of snow in December, precipitation has been down in March.
For the first time since last May, the Sunshine Coast Regional District has lifted water conservation regulations affecting a large part of its area north of Vancouver. A statement from the regional district says, effective immediately, Stage 1 water conservation regulations have been removed in the Chapman water system. In October, the regional district said the reservoir — which serves about 90 per cent of residents in the area — was at risk of "imminent exhaustion'' as southern B.C. recorded an unseasonably dry summer and warm fall.
On his ranch, Doug Wilson walks past an old abandoned three-storey home and stands at the bank of what had once been the flowing Maple Creek. The creek is dry again this year as brittle, dead tree debris litters the edges. Grass is growing where, at one time, water would have normally passed by. “Over the last 20 years we’ve seen a huge amount of tree loss,” Wilson said earlier this summer near the southwest Saskatchewan town. “It’s dying. The whole area is dying.” Wilson relies on the water to feed his cattle. It represents his livelihood and helps him survive. But over the last few years, he’s had to reduce his herd size from 600 cattle to 400. He’s also had to pay for someone else’s feed because he’s been short on water.
The Township of Spallumcheen has received a downpour of government funds to help with its water in one district. Spallumcheen will receive more than $3.3 million to build a new well and reservoir for the Larkin Water System, and improve the system through the installation of monitoring equipment. The federal government will contribute $1,850,000 to the project, Victoria is chipping in $1,480,000 and a total of $370,000 will come from the township.
On Friday. the city Iqaluit declared state of emergency following a precarious water situation, writes Reuters. The city is located in the territory of Nunavut, in the far north in Canada. The water level in the local river Apex is historically low after a year of little rain, according to data from the last 40 years. Local authorities fear that there will not be enough water in the reservoir to supply the approximately 7800 inhabitants until winter when the river freezes over. The city is now seeking license to pump more water than normally allowed from the Apex river, as well as tapping an additional water source.
Joint federal and provincial funding will help build a new water treatment plant and reservoir in Beausejour, Man. “The new water treatment plant will provide a safe drinking water source well into the future which will make the Town of Beausejour a sustainable and attractive place to live and invest, ensuring our kids and our families have clean air, water and soil,” said Ray Schirle, mayor of Beausejour.
Officials are once again preparing for flooding in Gatineau, Que., with several parts of the city now at risk. The city was notified about rapidly rising water levels in the Baskatong Reservoir by civil security officials the day prior, Mayor France Bélisle said at a press conference Monday. "We received 130 millimetres of water in 10 days. Usually, over the same period, we only receive 80 millimetres," she told reporters in French.
People living in Iqaluit are being reminded to conserve water as the city continues to deal with a water shortage that first reached emergency levels back in 2018. Amy Elgersma, Iqaluit's chief administrative officer, told Nipivut host Mary Oblibuk Tatty this past week that water levels at Lake Geraldine, the reservoir for the city's potable water, are lower than the city would like them to be. There are three reasons why, she said.
The Regional District of Nanaimo received $931,000 in grant funding for phase two of the Whiskey Creek Water Supply Upgrade project. The regional district will install a transmission main from the existing well to the reservoir to replace the temporary overland main, modernize the distribution pumping and control system and install backup power. When phase two of the project is complete later this year, the Whiskey Creek Water Service Area will have a secure, permanent and resilient water system.
Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir in the U.S., is drying up. The situation is critical: if water levels at the lake were to drop another 32 feet, all hydroelectricity production would be halted at the reservoir's Glen Canyon Dam. The U.S. West's climate change-induced water crisis is now triggering a potential energy crisis for millions of people in the Southwest who rely on the dam as a power source. Over the past several years, the Glen Canyon Dam has lost about 16 percent of its capacity to generate power. The water levels at Lake Powell have dropped around 100 feet in the last three years.
