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.
Unquestionably, dumping more than 300 million litres of sewage-tinged water into the Ottawa River stinks. But it’s hard to imagine what that much sewage overflow actually does to a waterway. So, we asked the experts about the impact of the city’s decision to release that volume of water following the massive Aug. 10 storm—and what can be done to prevent this in the future.
Ottawa restoration companies are inundated with calls from households beset by sewage backup from Thursday's flash floods, which caused "catastrophic" damage to some homes. Deven Raval, owner of PuroClean, called it "mayhem." He said his company normally deals with five or so calls per day. But this has been different. "My phone's going crazy," he said, as rings repeatedly interrupted an interview. He'd already fielded about 70 calls as of Friday morning. He said four of every five relate to sewage.
Canada's East Coast province of Nova Scotia began cleaning up on Sunday after torrential rainfall caused devastating floods, while the search continued for four people including two children who went missing during the deluge. The storm, which started on Friday, in some places dumped more than 25 cm (10 inches) in just 24 hours - as much as normally falls in three months. CBC meteorologist Ryan Snoddon said it was the most rain to hit the provincial capital Halifax since Hurricane Beth in 1971.
The city says it wants to create more green spaces that can act as sponges, so water gets absorbed into the ground rather than drained into sewers during rain deluges. Firefighters were deployed to help pump water out of buildings. Sabourin said the city typically gets 90 millimetres of rain in July — meaning Montreal received almost as much rain it usually sees in July in the span of two hours. The city's sewers simply don't have the capacity to hold that much water, he said, explaining the floods. The area south of the downtown core was most affected.
California - one of the driest states in the US - is being inundated with torrential rain and flooding. And given the decades-long drought in the region, which has led to restrictions on water usage in some areas, you might be wondering if this extreme weather could in some ways be a positive. But the downpour is unlikely to have a big impact on the drought. In fact, experts say it would take consecutive years of severe wet weather to reverse it in the long-term.
An environmental group is sounding the alarm about the city's main sewage and stormwater system after finding trash like condoms, sanitary wipes and tampons floating in Toronto harbour last month. Mark Mattson, an environmental lawyer and the founder of Swim Drink Fish — a volunteer group working to create swimmable, drinkable, and fishable water for everyone — told CBC Toronto he went to Ontario Place to check out the quality of the water the day after a large storm on July 24.
The water has receded and fans are blowing around the clock in Christina Beeusaert's East St. Paul basement. Her belongings are stacked to the ceiling and like many Manitobans, she is waiting to learn just how much the water damage will cost her. "It depends, once they start ripping the other room apart, how much water damage there is behind the walls and that," she told CBC News.
Much of southern Manitoba is dealing with overland flooding and high water warnings. The province says the Red River continues to rise, a situation only made worse by last weekend’s storm. Pumps are running around the clock in St. Jean Baptiste. Justin Heinrichs, who was working in town, had to stop to take in just how high the water is, noting he hasn’t seen it this high in a while.
The damage sustained to Vancouver’s scenic seawall during a storm last week could be a sign of things to come as sea levels continue to rise due to climate change. “We know that we are vulnerable,” Ian Stewart of the Vancouver Park Board told CTV National News. “We are looking at… long-term solutions.” During a fierce Jan. 7 storm, high winds and extreme tides battered the popular Stanley Park Seawall, transforming sections into rubble. Littered with upturned and broken chunks of concrete and debris, much of it remains dangerous and off-limits to visitors, robbing the city of part of what is supposed to be the world’s longest uninterrupted waterfront path.
Two weeks after a winter storm in Iqaluit took down the tent that housed the Canadian Armed Forces' water purification system, their efforts to provide the city with clean drinking water have resumed. On Monday, the City of Iqaluit announced residents can get purified river water from the military's purification system at Abe Okpik Hall or Elder's Qammaq, but they have to bring their own buckets or jugs — the water depots are no longer providing bottled water.
Some Nova Scotians in northern Cape Breton have been able to get around storm-damaged roads by boat, but in another part of Victoria County, others are still cut off and waiting for relief, after heavy rains and high winds battered the region last week. "It's very heartbreaking out here," said Bev MacAskill, who lives on Oregon Road just off the Cabot Trail. "We have no way to get out except by helicopter."
Between 60 and 90 millimetres of rain is forecast for most regions, except up to 120 millimetres over the northern sections of Metro Vancouver, including the North Shore mountains and Pitt Meadows. Squamish could see up to 150 millimetres, according to the rainfall warning posted Wednesday morning. The agency warns elevated freezing levels and snowmelt may contribute to increased runoff. The rain is expected to taper off tonight.
The third in a series of storms that have increased in intensity is bearing down on B.C., causing major concerns for communities dealing with the consequences of previous storms over the past two weeks. CBC meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe says 10 to 15 millimetres could fall within a mere three hours on parts of the South Coast on Tuesday, and freezing levels will rise rapidly in altitude — which means more snowmelt.
“It's a very similar storm,” Bob Robichaud, a senior Environment Canada meteorologist based in Nova Scotia, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview. “It's the same type of atmospheric setup that would generate this type of rainfall.” He explained that this type of extreme rainfall event, like the one in B.C., occurs when a “very concentrated plume of moisture in the atmosphere that streams up from the tropics” becomes part of a storm.
Photos show just how deep the floodwaters were last week following a storm across the southern half of British Columbia. Images captured by The Canadian Press show three areas of Abbotsford, B.C., as they looked underwater, at the height of the flooding in the Fraser Valley city. The same locations were then photographed again as the water receded, showing the dramatic impact of the previous storm.
The City of Iqaluit urged its residents to have enough water on hand to last for 72 hours because of strong winds and heavy snowfall expected to start Monday night and end on Tuesday. “The City is recommending that residents refill water, in the event that the potential incoming storm limits their ability to leave their homes and get to water refilling depots,” Aleksey Cameron, communications manager with the city, said to Nunatsiaq News in an email. Tuesday marks the start of the seventh week that Nunavut’s largest community has been under an order not to consume city tap water, after diesel fuel was detected in the water in October. Many residents have been getting their water from city-run filling stations that provide water purified by the Canadian Armed Forces, who draw water from the Sylvia Grinnell River and run it through their temporary purification system.
The town of Terrace Bay will remain under a boil water advisory for most of this week after a lightning strike cut power to the northwestern Ontario town's water treatment plant on the weekend. Terrace Bay Mayor Jody Davis said the strike occurred during a storm on Sunday night. And while there were no injuries, some of the plant's equipment was damaged. "A breaker was hit," Davis said Monday. "One of the transformers, which is for the water treatment generator, emergency generator, it got fried."
