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.
People in Sanirajak, Nunavut, are asked to keep their water at a rolling boil for at least one minute before using it. That's because total coliform bacteria has been found in the water system, and people could get sick from drinking tap water, according to the territory's Department of Health. People should boil any water used for drinking; preparing infant formulas, ice, juice, or meals; brushing teeth; and washing fruit and vegetables.
There are still 28 boil water advisories left on First Nations in Canada. That's according to Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu. She says the challenge now is making sure there are qualified people to operate the water treatment systems. "A lot of it comes down to water operators," Hajdu said on Wednesday after her visit to Northwest Angle #33.
Epcor began adding orthophosphate at its two local water treatment plants last week, two years later than initially planned, the utility confirmed with Postmedia. This treatment will create protective coatings inside pipes to prevent lead from leaching into drinking water, both for Epcor’s pipes and those of private property owners, in hopes of making sure lead concentration in water citywide meets Health Canada’s standards. It’s expected to take up to six months to take full effect.
The water system in Jackson, Mississippi, which partially collapsed in late August, was experiencing “fluctuating” pressure impacting residents on Saturday amid frigid temperatures, officials said. Some neighborhoods in Jackson had low water pressure and residents said they had no water pressure on Christmas Eve. As the temperature remained below freezing, production slowed at one of the city’s water treatment plants while officials worked to correct the pressure drop they believed was caused by leaks and water line breaks.
With inflation driving construction costs higher than in previous years, local service distracts are having trouble coming up with the 10 per cent in funding they need to tackle important infrastructure upgrades. When small communities and local service districts in Newfoundland and Labrador need to build roads or water treatment plants, most of the cost is covered by the provincial government. But some districts have started to run into problems, when jobs can no longer be done for the amount of money available by the time tenders go out.
Whether Calgary does or doesn’t have fluoride in its water appears to be a fluid situation. Last year, council voted in favour of adding fluoride after a plebiscite question in the municipal election. However, if you think you’ve been drinking it over the last 12 months, you’re mistaken. At the time of the vote, city officials told councillors it would take between 18 and 24 months to complete the work to add the mineral back into Calgarians water. But that timeline may now be extended.
Research shows that Indigenous communities in Canada are at higher risk from climate-related disasters such as flooding. Myrle Ballard is setting out to make sure Indigenous people are also part of the solution to climate change. Ballard is the first director of Environment and Climate Change Canada's new division of Indigenous Science, a role in which she's tasked with raising awareness of Indigenous science within the department and helping the government find ways to integrate it into its policies.
A Safety Data Sheet (SDS) on a sodium hypochlorite solution, a disinfecting agent commonly used in water treatment plants, says that the chemical can cause severe eye damage and skin burns, and is very toxic to aquatic life, having persistent effects. The SDS on sodium hypochlorite says the solution must be disposed of following local and national regulations and that it can’t be mixed with other forms of waste. The tanks are currently past life expectancy and work on this project is crucial because one of the three tanks is leaking.
A group of researchers at the University of Saskatchewan is worried about the numbers coming from the latest wastewater study. Every week, researchers test sewage samples taken from water treatment plants across the province to see whether evidence of COVID-19 is increasing or decreasing. That number is used to predict whether cases of COVID-19 will rise or fall in the future. During the latest sampling period ending March 16, researchers found that numbers were back on the rise.
Newly released wastewater data suggests that the recent decline in COVID-19 transmission in Toronto could be slowing or even plateauing but the city’s top health official says that she still remains cautiously optimistic about the weeks ahead. The data, which was posted to the city’s website on Friday morning, provides the most detailed look yet at the results of a wastewater surveillance project being conducted in collaboration with researchers from Ryerson University and the University of Toronto.
New data from researchers at Dalhousie University show that Omicron was in Nova Scotia wastewater weeks before it was identified by the province — and even before the new COVID-19 variant was reported by South Africa. Graham Gagnon, professor, and director of the Centre for Water Resource Studies confirmed in an email that: “Our team detected Omicron , retrospectively, in Nova Scotia wastewater in mid-November and will be able to provide further information in the future.”
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.
3. We are a rich country in many ways, but many Indigenous reserves still don't have clean drinking water. The tragedy of residential schools has ripped open the hurt and trauma many of our Indigenous families have felt for generations. Many of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommendations remain unheeded. How would you address these issues and help heal these wounds? As Jagmeet Singh previously stated, we wouldn't be asking this if it were Toronto or Vancouver that didn't have clean drinking water. The plan is to provide clean drinking water to reserves, there should be no hesitation. It is not enough to just simply provide water treatment plants either, we need to think long term. For example, my cousin lives near Tsiigehtchic, which has a water treatment plant, but every eight months the plant needs maintenance which nobody in the community knows how to do. We should be investing in training operators, preventative maintenance, and upkeep. I understand that there isn’t a blanket solution for clean drinking water on reserves but if we prioritize this issue we can get it done. All people who live in Canada deserve access to clean drinking water.
Water usage on Monday was up 20% from Sunday. The water treatment plants are operating at slightly below full capacity. We will be monitoring water demand closely this week as forecasted temperatures rise and anticipate it could be close to peak availability. Alternate water sources continue to be available for the farm, industrial, and residential. Please contact your municipality for additional fill stations not listed below.
Rebecca Zagozewski is the executive director of the Saskatchewan First Nations Water Association, a non-profit organization that works to build First Nations’ capacity to take care and control of their own water services. She says recruitment and retention of water treatment plant operators is a “real problem” on Saskatchewan First Nations, largely because they often can’t pay operators competitive wages.
Following public uproar of the Alberta government quietly pulling the 1976 coal policy, opening up more areas of the province for coal mining, a Calgary committee has started work to find out how those changes could affect the city on the Bow and Elbow Rivers. “The good news is, we found out today that although there’s different (land use) categories, the main category of the national parks and everything for our river system in the Bow is not affected with this policy,” Ward 1 Coun. Ward Sutherland said. “Obviously we’re very pleased with that.”
The Waabnoong Bemjiwang Association of First Nations (WBAFN), a tribal council with six member First Nations in Northern Ontario, and Canadian charity Water First Education & Training Inc. announce their partnership to deliver a drinking water treatment and environmental water science internship program for young Indigenous adults. Approximately 12 interns will be recruited from six participating First Nations communities across the tribal council’s region to pursue Operator in Training (OIT) and Water Quality Analyst (WQA) certifications.
The Liard First Nation in Yukon is testing a new method of obtaining clean water — pulling it out of the air. An atmospheric water generator installed in Watson Lake is gathering moisture from the air like a dehumidifier, then purifying it for drinking by using UV light. When working properly, the machine can generate 30 litres a day, which is enough for a family's daily needs.
If your tap water smells like chlorine, your schnozz has sniffed out a common springtime phenomenon in Edmonton. The spring thaw has made the city's drinking water more pungent than usual. Run-off from melting snow and river ice has washed higher than normal volumes of organic material into the water supply, said Shane Harnish, Epcor's senior manager of analytical operations. It's something workers at Edmonton's water treatment plants contend with every year. "What you're noticing is the chlorine smell in our water, and it's due to the chlorine reacting with some of this organic material," Harnish said in an interview Wednesday with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM.
Today, the Honourable Jane Philpott, Minister of Indigenous Services, congratulated Horse Lake First Nation on the opening of their new water treatment system. The new water treatment system in Horse Lake is critical to the community's efforts to ensure future generations have access to clean water. The new system features dual media filtration, reverse osmosis membranes, and ultra-violet light radiation.
