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.
The chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation is voicing his concern over yet another incident at the Kearl oilsands facility, located about a 90-minute drive north of Fort McMurray. In a statement issued Thursday, Chief Allan Adam said the Nov. 13 incident, involving water, has “once again impacted the environment on our traditional territories.”
The N.W.T. government has put out a call for tenders for an emergency dredging program in the Hay River harbour. It's been over a decade since the harbour was last dredged and last year residents of Hay River said the sediment buildup in the harbour was the worst they'd seen. Barges belonging to the government's marine transportation service (MTS) and even a Coast Guard vessel were held up on sand bars.
Two water-related notice of motions are slated to come before Chatham-Kent council for discussion and voting May 29. At a recent planning meeting, South Kent Coun. Ryan Doyle announced he is bringing forward a motion on the Aqua City inflatable play park proposed for Erieau beach. The motion involves approvals on storage facilities for Aqua City on municipal land, profit sharing with the Erieau community, as well as the federal and provincial parameters that must be met. As well, North Kent Coun. Rhonda Jubenville is bringing forward a motion to encourage the municipality to revisit the water wells issue in Dover and the former Chatham Township, coming on the heels of recent independent well testing that found heavy metals in the sediment that may be bio-accessible to humans and harmful to health.
The B.C. government has ordered Coastal GasLink to stop work on a section of pipeline near Prince George after officials found sediment-laden water being "pumped into an area that ran into tributaries of the Anzac River." In an email to CBC News, B.C.'s Environmental Assessment Office said there were "negative impacts" to a fish-bearing stream, a matter it takes "very seriously."
A water quality advisory has been issued for Nelson during spring run-off conditions. The City of Nelson said in a statement Wednesday that increased levels of turbidity or suspended matter have been found in the drinking water supply. The water can still be consumed, but Interior Health recommends residents with compromised immune systems take precautions when drinking it, washing fruits and vegetables or brushing their teeth.
Thousands of the world's large dams are so clogged with sediment that they risk losing more than a quarter of their storage capacity by 2050, UN researchers said Wednesday, warning of the threat to water security. A new study from the UN University's Institute for Water, Environment and Health found that, by mid-century, dams and reservoirs will lose about 1.65 trillion cubic metres of water storage capacity to sediment.
The Northwest Territories hamlet has spent years coming up with a plan to move some homes away from its rapidly eroding coast, but the problem could be complicated by erosion of an island that currently protects Tuktoyaktuk’s harbour. With less sea ice cover, storms have more open water across which to whip up waves that can batter the community and hasten erosion.
Ed Gillis lives next door to the new community solar garden being built in Antigonish, N.S. He's been fighting with the town over many issues, including one he thinks could have major environmental ramifications. The town clear cut a large section of land for the three megawatt solar garden right up to his property line. He said that shouldn't have happened due to a number of large sinkholes in the wooded area and proximity to a small river. "This goes back to March, and it's now December, that I have brought forward concerns," he said. Those concerns are sediment and other matter going into the river.
There’s a new branch on the tree of life and it’s made up of predators that nibble their prey to death. These microbial predators fall into two groups, one of which researchers have dubbed “nibblerids” because they, well, nibble chunks off their prey using tooth-like structures. The other group, nebulids, eat their prey whole. And both comprise a new ancient branch on the tree of life called “Provora,” according to a paper published today in Nature.
An N.W.T. MLA is pleading with the territory's infrastructure minister to dredge the Hay River harbour. Rocky Simpson, who represents Hay River South, said the process of removing silt and mud from the bottom of bodies of water is essential for the safety and navigation of vessels — which resupply communities, ship construction materials, and carry out search and rescue missions, among other things.
The mayor of Hay River says she'll keep "pounding the table" when it comes to the issue of dredging — or lack thereof — in the community's shipping channel that pours into Great Slave Lake, and she hopes "people are listening." Hay River is a hub for Canadian Coast Guard operations and shipping further North. However, in parts of the channel is a buildup of sediment, which sometimes creates obstacles for boats passing through.
Coastal GasLink has now been warned more than 50 times about environmental violations during construction of its natural gas pipeline across northern British Columbia, according to the province. In an email to CBC News, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change said it had issued a total of 51 warnings, 16 orders, and levied two fines — penalties of more than $240,000 "for repeated non-compliance" — since construction on the pipeline started in 2019.
The Junction Creek Stewardship committee is working with landowners along the waterway to help restore shoreline habitat. The effort is part of the Watersheds Canada Natural Edge Program. "When the soil and the sediment erodes into the creek, we have a lot of sediment build up which raises water levels it degrades the quality of there water," said Jessica Damaren, an environmental biologist with the committee.
Some residents in a Montreal borough are trying to determine why yellow water is flowing out of their taps -- but to no avail, they say. The taps of at least three triplexes on Saint-Henri's St-Antoine St. have been affected for two weeks. Resident Andre Duchesne said he and his neighbours reached out to the city for help but have not received any guidance. "They say they're going to look into it, and we didn't get an answer," he told CTV News.
After a record-setting Midwestern rainstorm that damaged thousands of homes and businesses, Stefanie Johnson’s farmhouse in Blandinsville, Illinois, didn’t have safe drinking water for nearly two months. Flood water poured into her well, turning the water a muddy brown and forcing Johnson, her husband and their two young children to use store-bought supplies. Even after sediment cleared, testing found bacteria — including E. coli, which can cause diarrhea. The family boiled water for drinking and cooking. The YMCA was a refuge for showers.
This week we celebrated World Water Day (March 22), which addresses water scarcity, sanitation needs, and access to clean water globally, so it only makes sense that this week’s column is about, you guessed it: Water. Many factors affect water quality, like acidity (pH balance), dissolved solids, gases like radon, hardness, and sediment. We can’t control all these factors, but homeowners can introduce systems that will enhance the water quality you use and consume and thus improve the quality of your life.
Coastal GasLink is facing more criticism over water-quality concerns as a result of construction on its 670-kilometre pipeline through northern B.C., this time in the western portion of the route near Kitimat. On Feb. 19, the company received an order from B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office for allowing sediment to flow into a watercourse where its pipeline right-of-way crosses the South Hirsch Forest Service Road, just east of Kitimat. The order requiring the company to prevent sediment-laden water from entering watercourse comes days after the company was fined $72,500 for similar violations that have repeatedly been identified along the pipeline route.
Pauzé says she started noticing changes in her well water when a nearby quarry, now operated by the Dufferin Aggregates division of CRH Canada, started drawing millions of litres of groundwater most days to wash gravel in 2009. The quarry is located on the northern edge of French's Hill, a groundwater recharge area where rainfall enters the ground and replenishes the regional water flow system. Owners of at least a dozen wells situated downgradient of the Teedon Pit and its aggregate washing operations have complained of changes in their water, and they suspect wash water is leaking into the underlying groundwater flow system.
Some rivers in the Cornwall, P.E.I., area have some new features this fall, designed to attract more wild Atlantic salmon. The fish is in the process of being listed as a species of special concern on P.E.I., under the Species at Risk Act, because of damage that has been done to its habitat. "The natural habitat would have been cobble, and it would have been rocky," said Karalee McAskill, co-ordinator for the Cornwall and Area Watershed Group.
The water flowing from Joel Pickard's faucet looked clear at first. But after pouring a glass — he could tell something was wrong. "I could just smell the dirt, so I took a drink and it tasted like dirt," he said. The Bathurst resident noticed what appeared to be sediment in his drinking water, so he reported it to the city in June. They told him it was safe, so his family continued using it until the taste became too strong to swallow.
