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 boil-water notice has been issued for the entire city of Prince Rupert, B.C., after its aging water system suffered multiple breaks on Tuesday night. Mayor Herb Pond described the situation in the city of 12,000 people as "armageddon-like," with water gushing out of the ground, washing out streets and flooding people's basements.
Prince Rupert declared a local state of emergency Saturday, as city officials said in a new release that there were three breaks in local water mains and multiple service interruptions that started early that morning. Herb Pond, the city's mayor, says six of the city's major water pipes have burst in the past week. "We have a very old water system," he said in an interview. "Much of the pipes are well over 100 years old." Pond says the ground in the area is mostly rock and muskeg with very little soil,causing the pipes to shift and be more susceptible to damage, especially as they get older.
Rising temperatures led to at least 12 water main breaks overnight, leaving dozens of Calgary homes without water Thursday morning. The city website shows breaks and water outages all around the city. Emergency water wagons were distributed to affected neighbourhoods. Shane Eustace lost water to his Ogden home and hopes it gets restored soon. “It’s a little bit of a pain. It’s the first time we’ve had a water main out since we’ve been in the area and first time we’ve had to use the emergency water,” Eustace said.
The Montreal Island city of Côte Saint-Luc has some of the worst tap water in the province, according to testing results for lead released through access to information legislation. The test results, compiled by Quebec’s Environment Ministry, show that 46 tap water samples from the Montreal Island city of 30,000 people had more than 10 parts per billion (ppb) of lead over a four-year period from 2015 to 2018.
