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.
Researchers at the University of Saskatchewan say COVID-19 levels in Saskatoon have increased again, signalling that the sixth wave is not over yet. On Monday, head researcher and toxicologist John Giesy released this week's COVID numbers, showing a 44 per cent increase from the previous week. "[This confirms] that the viral load is large in Saskatoon, with the second greatest amount ever observed and approximately the same amount as it was a month before," wrote Giesy.
Wastewater testing for the virus that causes COVID-19 reveals a mixed picture of the way the disease may have been circulating in Winnipeg earlier in March. The Public Health Agency of Canada analyzes samples of Winnipeg wasterwater near the city's three sewage treatment plants. The federal agency determines the relative volume of the virus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, and also tests the virus to see which virus variants are dominant.
For three weeks this summer, scientist Hector Rangel collected samples from wastewater in Caracas, Venezuela. His counterpart in Kampala, Uganda, Brian Lubega, took samples from a stream where open sewers drain into the watershed. These specimens were then processed and sent off to be analyzed at Western University’s Imaging Pathogens for Knowledge Translation (ImPaKT) facility. The goal is to better understand the prevalence of the coronavirus in these areas and get a picture of the variants that are circulating there.
