Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

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.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

sewage pipes

Green False-Creek utility to extend reach of its green heat and hot water

Green False-Creek utility to extend reach of its green heat and hot water

The City of Vancouver has signed up suppliers to expand its False Creek Neighbourhood Utility that provides heat and hot water around the Olympic Village, which will triple its existing footprint. The $100 million project will see Vancouver expand the system, which harvests waste heat from hot water running through sewage pipes as a key emissions-reduction measure, from 3.2 megawatts to 9.8 megawatts. And its capacity will be increased from servicing 600,000 square metres of building space, including Science World and Emily Carr University of Art and Design, to an additional 1.9 million square metres of new development in the Southeast False Creek, False Creek Flats, Northeast False Creek and Mount Pleasant.

Canada dumps billions of litres of raw sewage into natural waterways annually. How can we stop?

Canada dumps billions of litres of raw sewage into natural waterways annually. How can we stop?

Last summer, three Metro Vancouver beaches were closed to swimmers after high levels of E. coli were detected in the water. And this is a pretty common occurrence. Almost every year, beaches, lakes, and other water bodies are closed to swimming across Canada because there is fecal matter mixed into the water. Our poop! So how did that poop get there? Well, it's because of something called the combined sewer and stormwater system.

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