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.
"Private contractors will be hired to maintain essential site operations with the majority of their work being water treatment and ongoing monitoring." Chaleur Shotcrete Inc. and Stantec are the primary contractors, the province said Thursday. Brown said ongoing water treatment is required at the Caribou and Restigouche mine sites because water that contacts rock at the locations becomes acidic, something that poses environmental risks if untreated.
"We can regulate building on stilts for example…the water can come in and go out without any impact on the property itself or human life that inhabits that property." "Water features or green features, trees, grass are considered nature based solutions that help us adapt to climate change and at the same time they work as carbon sinks," she says.
The Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB) has recommended against a mining project in the Peel watershed. This is the first proposal that's come in since governments approved the land use plan for the Peel watershed in 2019. The project was put forward by Vancouver-based company, Silver47 Exploration Corp. Silver proposed a five-year drilling program at more than 200 sites at its Michelle Creek property in search of silver, zinc and lead. The property is roughly 20 kilometres away from Tombstone Territorial Park, on the traditional territories of the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in First Nation and the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun.
At the most basic level, rain gardens function like sponges. They are typically made by digging five or so feet into the ground, adding layers of rock and soil mixes designed to absorb and filter water, and topping the layers with flowers, trees, and shrubs. A finished rain garden should dip like a bowl about half a foot below ground level so that when it rains, the garden can temporarily fill up, allowing water to percolate into the ground rather than run into the street.
Last summer, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration observed dust blowing 85 miles from its source: Lake Abert and Summer Lake, two dried-up saline lakes in southern Oregon. This has happened before: Saline lakebeds are some of the West’s most significant sources of dust. California's Owens Lake is the nation's largest source of PM10, the tiny pollutants found in dust and smoke, while plumes blowing off the 800 square miles of the Great Salt Lake’s exposed bed have caused toxin-filled dust storms in Salt Lake City.
In the early morning hours of January 11, five people, including staff of the Association for Economic and Social Development (ADES) and leaders of the community of Santa Marta El Salvador, were arrested by the country’s Attorney General’s Office and National Civil Police. Those arrested were the Executive Director Teodoro Antonio Pacheco and Legal Advisor Saúl Agustín Rivas Ortega of ADES and community leaders in Santa Marta: Miguel Ángel Gámez, Alejandro Laínez García, and Pedro Antonio Rivas Laínez.
Canada’s Indigenous services minister made a promise to Oneida Nation of the Thames on Monday, pledging cash to connect the First Nation to a water supply system that would give residents clean drinking water. “The department and the government of Canada will be able to support this work financially,” Minister Patty Hajdu said in an interview. “The money is committed, and obviously, this is super important, not only to the Oneida Nation of the Thames but to the federal government in our work to make sure that everybody has access to clean drinking water.”
Local and federal officials are cautiously optimistic construction will be underway this spring for a water pipeline to serve the Oneida Nation of the Thames in southwestern Ontario. The pipeline, still in the design phase, is expected to be 18 kilometres long and connect the First Nation community with clean drinking water through the Lake Huron Water Supply System.
Canada's pesticide regulator repeatedly ignored red flags raised by its own scientists about the health risks posed by the pesticide chlorpyrifos, stalling a review of the pesticide for close to 20 years, documents obtained by the environmental group Ecojustice reveal. All the while, health concerns raised here at home and worldwide about the pesticide were never publicly shared. Commonly used on crops like wheat, in greenhouses and to kill mosquitoes, chlorpyrifos harms the nervous system and can cause brain defects in children. People are typically exposed by consuming contaminated food residue or water. Canadian farmers used on average 360,000 kilograms of the pesticide each year between 2008 and 2016, and a 2017 federal Canadian health survey found traces of chlorpyrifos on 99 per cent of foods sampled.
Back in February 2022, three people were killed in a house fire in a Northern Manitoba community. Chief David Monias of Pimicikamak Cree Nation says the federal government should provide more funding to First Nations to have the capacity to fight fires, including fire halls, proper running water and better support for firefighters. “Many First Nations don’t have a fire truck even or running water in some cases. To implement a code is really difficult across the board when there are so many concerns on reserve already.”
Through this federal investment, Parks Canada will continue to improve critical infrastructure in communities, maintain high standards for visitors, and enhance safety on the highways and roadways that take the public and visitors to and through the mountain national parks. In the Lake Louise area, critical repairs to community water and sewer infrastructure will improve service quality for residents, stakeholders and visitors, while the redesign of Lake Louise Drive will improve safety and visitor experience.
A busy downtown Toronto intersection will be closed for at least two weeks while crews repair a water main that burst over the weekend. King Street West is closed between York and Simcoe streets, and University Avenue is closed between Adelaide Street West and Wellington Street West. The city says that work to fix the water main will take place around the clock. The affected pipe is cast iron and was originally installed 140 years ago, says Bill Shea, director of distribution and collection for Toronto Water.
Pine Point, N.W.T., could have a fully operational lead and zinc mine within the next five years — nearly four decades after the old mine closed down and the nearby community was abandoned. In 2022, Pine Point Mining Limited received its Type A water licence, allowing it to withdraw water to be used for mineral exploration drilling, camp use, dust suppression and testing, among other things.
The New Brunswick government could face an annual bill of around $1 million to keep water treatment going if a buyer doesn't scoop up Caribou zinc mine near Bathurst. Tom MacFarlane, the deputy minister at the Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development, offered the estimate to MLAs during a committee meeting recently in Fredericton.
Luann Smith will be paying close attention to what Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu has to say on Monday about the federal government's willingness to fund a pipeline that will bring clean drinking water to Oneida Nation of the Thames. Smith, 67, is a lifelong resident of Oneida, a community that has been under a boil water advisory since 2019. Hajdu is scheduled to be a guest on Monday's edition of London Morning and will speak with host Rebecca Zandbergen about the situation.
The Canadian Coast Guard says it is working to contain and assess an oil spill from a container ship in Vancouver's English Bay. According to the coast guard, a pilot notified them of pollution from a ship around 11:40 a.m PT Saturday. Officials say the spill originated from the container vessel MV Europe, with a slick visible from the air on the water close to Spanish Banks beach.
The plight and height of the Kootenay River will be the current of conversation when the Columbia River Treaty talks go virtual early next month. A virtual information session is slated for Feb. 2 — with another on Jan. 30 on the Columbia River — to provide details and answer questions about the process, with the focus on Kootenay River “interests.” Those interests — as well as information on the Columbia River Treaty Local Governments Committee’s initiative — will be revealed in the two webinars, along with the performance measures that have been identified to date.
Residents serviced by the Municipality of Victoria County's water utility will likely see an increase in their water rates over the next two years following a decision by Nova Scotia's utility regulator. However, the amount that rates will jump is still uncertain, as the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board wants the municipality to submit a new rate study after the board took measures to insulate customers against significant rate hikes this year.
Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) applauds the Manitoba Government's decision in designating Moswa Meadows and Fish Lake Fen as Provincially Significant Peatlands—the first of their kind in the province. Manitoba is home to 17 per cent of Canadian peatlands, with these ecologically valuable areas covering over one third of the province's landmass. Peatlands offer valuable environmental and social benefits, including water management and filtration, remarkable carbon storage capacity, and habitat for wildlife.
"Medium and larger municipalities are starting to realize how important cybersecurity is to protecting the data of citizens, critical infrastructure, political systems, and so on," said Kush Sharma, MISA's director of municipal modernization and partnerships. He says a cyber attack can compromise everything from water and waste distribution systems to transportation technology.
