Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

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.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

wastewater surveillance

COVID-19 surged in Fredericton over holidays, new wastewater data reveals

COVID-19 surged in Fredericton over holidays, new wastewater data reveals

Fredericton had a surge of COVID-19 just after the holidays, newly released wastewater data indicates. The capital was added to the Public Health Agency of Canada's COVID-19 wastewater surveillance dashboard Tuesday night, joining Moncton as the second New Brunswick location on the national website launched nine months ago. Data dating back to Dec. 22 shows Fredericton's seven-day rolling average of viral load, expressed as the number of viral gene copies found in a millilitre of raw sewage, started out at 17 copies/ml.

Rooted in community: Dalhousie innovators celebrated for their impact in Nova Scotia and beyond at Discovery Awards

Rooted in community: Dalhousie innovators celebrated for their impact in Nova Scotia and beyond at Discovery Awards

Dr. Amina Stoddart, a professor in Dalhousie’s Department of Civil and Resource Engineering, is applying her expertise in wastewater treatment to help advance the state of the art in water utilities. In 2020, Dr. Stoddart was awarded a highly competitive, internationally peer-reviewed 3-year, $1 million Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) Grant with Halifax Water from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) focused on wastewater surveillance and wastewater treatment optimization. This award is one of the largest CRD grants ever awarded to a faculty member at Dalhousie University. The goal of her research is to improve the effluent quality of the wastewater systems operated by Halifax Water. Through a series of studies Dr. Stoddart and her research team will identify chemical treatment optimizations, illuminate fouling mechanisms, test new technologies for disinfection, and assess discharge of contaminants of emerging concern, including microplastics.

Wastewater testing shows COVID-19 may be 'starting to plateau' in Kitchener and Cambridge

Wastewater testing shows COVID-19 may be 'starting to plateau' in Kitchener and Cambridge

Wastewater testing in the Region of Waterloo shows the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has pushed infection levels to more than 10 times higher than ever before but there are early indications that infections may be starting to level off. Thursday's data published by the Region of Waterloo contains the first sign of hope for a slowing down of infection during the latest wave of the pandemic.

Why testing sewage for COVID-19 could be more useful than ever

Why testing sewage for COVID-19 could be more useful than ever

The COVID-19 testing system has been overwhelmed by the Omicron variant, making it impossible to know how many people are infected. Monitoring for the novel coronavirus in wastewater could help fill the gap, says Rob Delatolla, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Ottawa and one of dozens of researchers across Canada that have been developing and using the technique. "I think it just became that much more valuable," he said.

Wastewater samples can be useful tool as COVID-19 testing declines in Canada

Wastewater samples can be useful tool as COVID-19 testing declines in Canada

With some jurisdictions limiting PCR testing for COVID-19 and others increasingly overwhelmed by diagnostic demands, experts have stressed that daily case counts no longer paint the full picture of viral levels within communities. But what we flush down the toilet may give us a better understanding of COVID-19's prevalence. Researchers across the country have been undertaking wastewater surveillance since early in the pandemic, looking for trace amounts of the virus in sewage to see how it's spreading.

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