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.
The chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation is voicing his concern over yet another incident at the Kearl oilsands facility, located about a 90-minute drive north of Fort McMurray. In a statement issued Thursday, Chief Allan Adam said the Nov. 13 incident, involving water, has “once again impacted the environment on our traditional territories.”
Science, art, and the great outdoors. Megan Leung describes these three things as her greatest passions in life. Growing up in Mohkinstsis — on the traditional territories of the Treaty 7 region, located in the Canadian Rockies of Southern Alberta — the hydrologist, artist, and MSc geography student at the University of Calgary has always been in awe of her surroundings. It’s a love that inspired both her art and her academic path. For years though, Leung felt those passions were completely divergent parts of her life.
The Columbia River Treaty, an international agreement governing the flow of water between British Columbia and six U.S. states, will be 55 years old this year. It has not aged well. The river springs from the Columbia Icefield in the Rocky Mountains of B.C. and winds 1,930 kilometres through the Northwestern United States – Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming. No other river in North America spills more water into the Pacific Ocean.
