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 Canadian mining company is responsible for selenium pollution entering North Idaho waters. Teck Resources is a mining company in British Columbia. Waste rock from four of their mines have been leaching selenium into the Kootenai River Watershed since the early 1980s. Selenium is toxic at high levels. Since 2017, the population of westslope cutthroat trout in this watershed has decreased by 93% because of selenium pollution.
