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.
An associate professor of biology at the University of New Brunswick is warning residents about blue-green algae popping up along the St. John River this summer. Janice Lawrence says mats of cyanobacteria will probably start lifting off the river bottom and washing ashore any day now. "That's when they become dangerous," said Lawrence, who has been studying blue-green algae along the St. John River for the past three years.
