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.
Widespread drought across the Lake Winnipeg watershed has forced Manitoba Hydro to operate its Brandon generating station months before the depths of winter, when the natural gas-fired plant is usually put into service as a last resort. The Brandon station, which usually only operates during peak periods of cold-weather demand, has been running since late October, Manitoba Hydro said Friday in a statement.
The ducks and Canada geese are back on Moore's Pond in Stratford, P.E.I., now that the pond is again filling up with water after dredging removed sediment that's been collecting there for years. The town applied in 2019 for funding for the project, which also includes restoration work at nearby Kelly's Pond, part of the same watershed.
Washington state officials and farmers are calling on the British Columbia government to act on water quality reports that show large amounts of bacteria are flowing from north of the border into the Nooksack River watershed. They say high levels of fecal coliform — of which E. coli is a subgroup — are flowing from a Fraser Valley creek into Pepin Creek in Washington before entering the Nooksack, which empties into the sea near shellfish beds owned by the Lummi Nation.
It’s about clean water. It’s always been about clean water. Miranda Dick, Secwépemc, repeatedly emphasizes the importance of clean water when she speaks about her actions trying to stop the twinning of the Trans Mountain pipeline. She said for her whole life, stemming from her mom and dad, she’s been protecting the watershed. Her mom passed away from cancer more than 18 years ago. “She always said it was in the food we eat and the water we drink – this cancer would be contaminating our human consumption. So she always said to protect clean water, protect the berries, and protect the salmon and the deer. It’s our food supply, right?” remarked Miranda. “So I always led with that, over the course of time, protection of clean water.”
The controversial Canada-U.S. oil and gas conduit known as Line 5 could be facing its toughest challenger yet: the very watershed the pipeline's detractors are trying to protect. Spring flooding has washed away significant portions of the riverbank where Line 5 intersects Wisconsin's Bad River, a meandering, 120-kilometre course through Indigenous territory that feeds Lake Superior and a complex network of ecologically delicate wetlands.
It's easy to feel hopeless about climate change, to believe most solutions are out of your hands. But you can help fix one of the biggest environmental issues of our time, since it's probably growing right in your own yard: lawn grass. Most Canadian yards are a sea of non-native, inedible turf grass. Not evolved for our climate, it requires intensive maintenance, watering and fertilizer inputs, and provides virtually no value to native species. Yet this "eco-desert" is the largest irrigated crop in North America.
The Manitoba government is advancing protection and support for water resources through a number of initiatives including enhancing the Lake Friendly Initiative and expanding watershed districts, Environment and Climate Minister Kevin Klein announced today to kick off the week leading up to Earth Day on April 22. “Water is a precious resource and we all need to work together to ensure we make every drop count,” said Klein. “We are making investments in initiatives that enhance protections for Lake Winnipeg and our watersheds, helping ensure the sustainable management of our valuable water resources, now and for future generations.”
Swift Current, Sask., has been experiencing flooding over the last few days due to the spring melt, so much so that the city called an official state of emergency at 5 p.m. CST Tuesday night. As of 4 p.m. CST Wednesday, the city remained under that state of emergency, as water levels continued to be high. The city said the decision to declare the emergency was meant as a proactive measure, as there is the potential of increased spring water run-off. The city said the source of the flooding is the Swift Current Creek.
The Simpcw First Nation has become the latest community to declare a part of its traditional territory near the B.C.-Alberta border to be protected from logging and other extractive activities. On Monday, the First Nation announced it had declared the Raush Valley watershed — home to rare temperate rainforests located in the Rocky Mountains, halfway between Valemount and McBride — as an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA), based on what it says is the community's inherent right over its unceded territory.
The Greater Sudbury Watershed Alliance wants the northern Ontario city to stop building major roads near the city's watershed. The group says because arterial roads are legislated to be clear of snow between three to eight hours after a snowfall, the city has to use salt to reach that target. Smaller, less busy roads, though, don't have the same requirements in place, and the city can use sand for traction instead.
If you have spare land in Niagara in need of some trees, the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA) is looking for you. “Trees for All” is an initiative that sees the NPCA partner with local community groups, environmental agencies and government organizations. Landowners can apply for the grant to help Canada reach its goal of planting two billion trees.
According to the promoters, the region contains some of the world's largest deposits of spodumene, a rock from which lithium — key to the energy transition and the electrification of transport networks — is extracted. Nemaska Lithium describes itself as a corporation that "intends to facilitate access to green energy, for the benefit of humanity." The Whabouchi open pit mine will be located about 30 kilometres from the village of Nemaska, in the watershed of the Rupert River, considered one of Quebec's ecological gems. "If the water becomes contaminated by the mine, I don't see how we can limit the damage to the food chain," says Thomas Jolly, who was chief of Nemaska from 2015 to 2019, stressing the importance of fishing to his community.
In a city of pinstripes and partisan power brokers, Mike Allison sticks out like a sore thumb. He’s in the wrong place — and he knows it. “I shouldn’t be here,” the denim-clad Indigenous elder suddenly says, fighting tears beneath the brim of his trademark cowboy hat. “I should be out on the land, working with my kids, teaching them values. I should be teaching them kids how to work with the environment, not fight for it.”
In the far northwest of Manitoba, the Seal River flows 260 kilometres through the thick boreal forest into Hudson Bay. It's the only major river in northern Manitoba without any dams. No roads lead to the river, and there's only one human settlement in the river's watershed. That community, the Sayisi Dene, is leading an initiative along with neighbouring Dene, Cree and Inuit communities to protect the 50,000 square kilometres of the watershed. That's an area of untouched wilderness roughly the size of Nova Scotia, which would be protected from industrial development if the community's proposal is accepted.
Officials on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast have approved another extension of the state of local emergency declared last month as an intense summer drought and little rain have nearly exhausted a key watershed. The Sunshine Coast Regional District says the state of local emergency, declared jointly with the District of Sechelt and shíshálh Nation, will now remain in effect until at least Nov. 21.
Every winter since the tailings pond breach at the Mount Polley mine in 2014, copper-laden sediment from the bottom of Quesnel Lake has been re-suspended in the water column and has flowed into the Quesnel River affecting aquatic life in the watershed, according to a new paper by UNBC researchers Phil Owens and Ellen Petticrew. The tailings facility at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine failed on Aug. 4, 2014, sending 25 million cubic metres of solids and water from the mine site into the local environment and researchers have spent the past eight years monitoring the environment after the breach.
Lawyers for the British Columbia government have agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a lawsuit by a couple whose property flooded after a third of the forest in the surrounding watershed was cut down. The agreement came in a handwritten note that was signed by the Crown's lawyers and handed over in court on the day the trial was set to begin last month. Ray Chipeniuk and Sonia Sawchuk had launched the lawsuit in 2014, claiming that B.C. Timber Sales, the provincial Crown agency responsible for auctioning about 20 per cent of B.C.'s annual allowable cut, was negligent in its failure to take reasonable care to ensure their property in northwestern B.C. would not be damaged by the logging.
A group of B.C. First Nations are calling on Australian mining giant Rio Tinto Alcan to release more water into the Nechako River after a sudden die-off of endangered white sturgeon. Last month, B.C.’s Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship reported 11 dead adult white sturgeon had been found in the Nechako River — an unusual occurrence. White sturgeon can grow to six metres long and live more than 100 years. They are an endangered species with between 300 and 600 remaining in the wild. Scientists said the fish had not died from disease, chemical exposure or due to fishing, and had no signs of injury. The government then reached out to local First Nations.
After years of protest, a pesticide has been released in the Miramichi watershed as part of a project to eradicate the invasive smallmouth bass. Salmon conservation groups confirm Sept. 8 marked the first application of Noxfish II, a chemical that includes rotenone. It was released in Lake Brook and approximately 15 kilometres of the Southwest Miramichi River.
