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.
“On Wednesday, June 7, during a routine water source inspection on Meares Island in the Haahuulthii of the Tla-o-qui-aht Ha’wiih, crews identified a leak,” the statement reads. “In order to isolate and repair the leak, water distribution will be impacted, and a partial shutdown of our water system is required between the hours of 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Thursday, June 8. We are asking residents and businesses to restrict their use of water during this period.”
Even in the decades before the West plunged into a 22-year drought, the proposals to shift water from wetter states to more arid locations have never been in short supply. There was the submarine pipeline from Alaska to California. Towing Antarctic icebergs to make up for shortfalls in drinking water supplies. A pipeline from Lake Superior to Wyoming. And that one plan that more or less required an invasion of Canada.
