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 state of local emergency has lifted in the Village of Harrison Hot Springs, east of Vancouver, just days after it was issued when problems at the local water treatment facility put water availability at risk. A statement from Mayor Ed Wood says two pumps are now in full working order at the plant and an external backup pump is also available, if needed.
New Jersey’s Canoe Brook Water Treatment plant produces 14 millions gallons of drinking water a day. Each one of those gallons weighs around 8 pounds , so it’s quickly apparent that a large amount of energy is needed to move water from a reservoir to the treatment plant and into the 84,000 homes and businesses that the New Jersey American Water Company serves in the area. So the water utility partnered with NJR Clean Energy Ventures, the renewable energy subsidiary of the natural gas firm New Jersey Resources, for a solution. NJR Clean Energy Ventures built a vast array of solar panels, linked them together, and placed them on the surface of the water at Canoe Brook Reservoir.
Through this investment, the Town of Kentville will install new water distribution pipes, sanitary sewer collection pipes and a stormwater management system as well as replace an existing water tank and treatment plant under the future Donald E. Hiltz Connector Road, which will connect the Kentville Business Park to Prospect Avenue. This investment will increase capacity to treat and manage wastewater and stormwater while opening up new land for to build housing in Kentville.
Vancouver-based infinitii ai inc. ("infinitii ai") (CSE: IAI) (FSE: 7C5) (OTC: CDTAF) today announced it has signed a national distribution agreement for infinitii flowworks predictive analytics software for Smart City water and wastewater infrastructure utilities with Core & Main Inc. (NYSE: CNM). "Core & Main's Core+ solutions are leading edge, high value digital platforms for Smart Cities, and we're honored to be an integral part of them," said Jean Charles Phaneuf, CEO of infinitii ai. "Core & Main is a national player in the water and wastewater industry in the U.S. operating over 300 branches nationwide, making them an extraordinary strategic partner for us."
A northwestern Ontario First Nation that was under a boil-water advisory for 24 years has received this year's award for building the province's best small drinking water system. The Ontario Public Works Association presented the 2022 Public Works Project of the Year for Small Municipalities and First Nations award to Shoal Lake #40 First Nation, at a ceremony in Mississauga, Ont., Tuesday. The award recognizes the new Shoal Lake #40 water treatment plant as having uniquely provided opportunities for local procurement and employment.
Iqaluit resident Jenny Ell says she couldn't believe it when she turned on her tap a couple of weeks ago and smelled fuel for the second time in a matter of months. Ell, who is pregnant, said she was worried for her baby's safety and immediately contacted the city. "I'm hanging in there," Ell said. "Hopefully they're not slow about it like the last time it happened." About 8,000 people in the territory's capital city couldn't drink the tap water for two months last fall when it was found to be contaminated with fuel.
Nunavut's Health Department has lifted a precautionary boil-water advisory for the city of Iqaluit. The capital's 8,000 people had been under the advisory since Jan. 19 when the city started using a bypass system to pump water to residents. The city shut down its treatment plant the same day after drinking water coming from taps was found to contain traces of fuel. The water was also contaminated with fuel late last year and residents were under a do-not-consume order for two months.
Nunavut MP Lori Idlout is calling for $180 million from the federal government to “end the water emergency in Iqaluit.” The government should “fix an issue of basic human rights … as the federal government would for any other major Canadian city,” Idlout wrote in a Friday letter to federal Infrastructure and Communities Minister Dominic LeBlanc. Idlout didn’t say exactly what the money would be used for, but mentioned Mayor Kenny Bell’s recent statements that the city needs a new water source and treatment plant.
The City of Iqaluit shut down its water treatment plant Wednesday after the water was contaminated last week with fuel for the second time. The city said a breach in the system is suspected to have caused residents to smell fuel in their water, with breaches detected last week and Wednesday. The city said it is using a bypass system to pump water to residents instead and the entire territorial capital is now under a precautionary boil water advisory.
A flowing river that turns to solid ice in October, freezing pipes and frosty arctic temperatures are all routine for Nunavummiut. But those issues were a first for a water treatment system previously used by the Canadian Armed Forces in places, including Haiti after the 2010 earthquake and the Philippines. Iqaluit has been under a state of emergency since Oct. 12 when fuel was found in the water at the city's treatment plant. Residents have not been able to drink tap water since then.
For many of us, drinking water from the tap, taking a shower or flushing a toilet are things that are taken for granted. However, residents of the Cheekye, or Cheakamus 11, reserve say they are sometimes left wondering when and if those necessities are available to them. Those who live on that reserve say that their water infrastructure cuts out, leaving them dry and without any means to perform basic functions. When it does work, they say, it supplies them with water they don't trust.
After years of boil water advisories, clean drinking water is a reality for two northwestern Ontario Indigenous communities. A new water treatment plant in Regina Bay went online at the end of August, bringing an end to boil water advisories in the community. Another water treatment plant is nearing completion in Windigo Island, where the boil water advisory is expected to be lifted in early October.
Twenty million litres of water is filtered at Corner Brook's treatment plant every day — above average for the community's size, say city staff, who are urging residents to conserve. Don Burden, the City of Corner Brook's director of public works, would like it if people ran their taps less often. "Lets keep consumption to the absolute minimum," Burden said in an interview with CBC News. Burden said the average resident of Corner Brook, which has a population of about 23,000 people, consumes more water than an average resident of Newfoundland and Labrador. "Let's keep the watering of lawns to a minimum," he said. "Let's keep a jug of water in the fridge instead of running the tap to get cold water. Run your washer full instead of half-loads. Try not wash your car more than once a week. Try and not wash down your driveway more than once a week. Every little bit helps."
This time of year, with the temperature plunging below -20 C, a snowmobile and an ice chisel are required tools for anyone in Tataskweyak Cree Nation in need of fresh water. There’s the bottled stuff, trucked into town courtesy of the federal government, but the weekly shipment of 1,500 cases is only sufficient to meet basic consumption needs. For cleaning, cooking and basic hygiene water, many residents need a supplementary source. And rather than use their tainted tap water, they follow a snowmobile trail several kilometres to Assean Lake, pails in hand.
In Canada's largest city, raw sewage flows into Lake Ontario so often, Toronto tells people they should never swim off the city's beaches for least two days after it rains. Across the country in Mission, B.C., a three-decade-old pipe that carries sewage under the Fraser River to a treatment plant in Abbotsford is so loaded operators can't even slip a camera inside it to look for damage. If that pipe bursts, it will dump 11 million litres of putrid water from area homes and businesses into a critical salmon habitat every day it isn't fixed.
