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 U.S. company hoping to revitalize fisheries while pulling carbon dioxide out of the air and water wanted to develop its technology in Canada, but gave up after getting a reception from Canadian authorities as chilly as the North Atlantic. Instead, Running Tide is operating in Iceland, deploying a fleet of sensors in the ocean this year in collaboration with Icelandic shipping company Eimskip.
A small Canadian company working out of the Western Sarnia-Lambton Research Park is taking on one of this century’s greatest challenges —abundant access to clean water for people, farms and industry. Forward Water Technologies has developed a proprietary technology that uses ‘forward osmosis’ to convert dirty wastewater into clean water. The technology was born at an Ontario university lab and has now reached the demonstration stage in a pilot plant at the Sarnia facility. “The winds of change are blowing,” company president and CEO Howie Honeyman said of addressing climate change and resource protection.
