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.
Wildfires can alter landscapes in a few ways; they remove vegetation that would otherwise provide stabilization and absorption to the ground, and they can alter the soil composition itself. If a fire burns hot enough, or is persistent enough, it can change some compounds in the soil to make the soil hydrophobic. Meaning any heavy rainfall that occurs in the affected area will simply pool on the ground surface, as the soil will repel the water.
Angie Kane knows how important well water is when you live in the heart of dry, rural B.C. For 17 years, she lived on a ranch outside Clinton, a semi-desert village about 120 kilometres northwest of Kamloops. Many residents who live outside municipal boundaries draw water from aquifers. For Kane, the arid climate always kept the importance of her water supply top of mind. "That is the biggest concern, for anyone who has a well, is will it dry up? Or will it go away?" she told CBC News.
A potato wash plant in Travellers Rest is cleaning up its act, and the pressure is on after the province issued a directive letter in mid-January. P.E.I. Potato Solutions is getting ready to open a new, larger facility next month, said co-owner Austin Roberts. Neighbours have made numerous complaints to the provincial Department of Environment as well as Environment Canada regarding the plant’s practices over the years. On Dec. 26, a heavy rainfall, combined with other factors, caused a holding pond containing organic waste from the plant to discharge into the environment.
A Travellers Rest business has taken responsibility for a recent wastewater spill and is working to make sure it never happens again. The spill was noticed on Dec. 27, when Chris Wall, who lives in the adjacent community of New Annan, saw that the stream on his property was filled with smelly, grey water. “Seventy-five feet from the brook, I could smell the potato leachate,” said Wall, whose property is more than a kilometre from P.E.I. Potato Solutions, which has offered washing and sorting services to farmers across the Island since 2014. Wall snapped photos showing what he described as an unusual, thick, grey cloud of material in the stream, a tributary to the Barbara Weit River. He immediately suspected the wash plant and went directly to the culvert that exits the property, where he photographed dirty water flowing off-site. Wall reported what he saw to the Department of Environment.
For decades, Pictou Landing First Nation has lived uneasily near an industrial plant emitting brown, foul-smelling waste and the effluent treatment facility they say causes respiratory and skin illnesses. Now, the mill is being mothballed. Ms. Francis, a member of Pictou Landing First Nation, fought for years to stop toxic wastewater from the Northern Pulp plant from being pumped into a tidal estuary next to her community. After decades of court battles, environmental studies and protests, people on the Nova Scotia reserve are hopeful they may one day be able trust their water and land again.
When Steven and Diane Hayes look back at the eight years they spent questioning the quality of their drinking water, battling bouts of diarrhea and other stomach troubles, they tell CBC News they still have a hard time believing the people they called friends and whom they trusted — their landlords — were responsible. It's an accusation the Hayes are now trying to prove in a civil lawsuit.
