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.
New research out of York University found that fluoride exposure via drinking water may increase the risk of hypothyroidism in pregnant women. In a smaller subset of participants, the researchers found lower IQ scores between boys whose mothers had been diagnosed with hypothyroidism compared to boys whose mothers had normal thyroid levels.
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.
“B.C.’s strong economy and natural beauty continue to attract people from across Canada and around the world. Cities and towns need support to build thriving, livable communities,” said Premier David Eby. “The new Growing Communities Fund will help local municipalities improve roads, build more arenas and water facilities, and improve recreation options for families.”
In the unassuming heart of Stratford, in between an oil change shop and a grocery store, a Canadian milestone is taking shape. Canada’s first lunar rover is being designed and built by Canadensys Aerospace – specifically at the Stratford prototyping facility located at the former Samsonite Canada site on Ontario Street. Peter Visscher, general manager of the facility, introduced StratfordToday to a prototype of the lunar rover, affectionately known as SCAMP. Standing for Small Canadian All-terrain Mobility Platform – the ‘t’ is small – SCAMP is being designed for a lunar mission planned for 2026.
Environmentalists are praising the creation of a new conservancy area near Revelstoke, but the provincial government needs to create 168 like it to meet its own protection goals by 2030. Both Premier David Eby and Environment Minister George Hyman said during last month’s announcement of a new conservancy in the Incomappleux Valley that the province wants to protect 30 per cent of its land base by 2030.
Pink sea urchins off the coast of Vancouver Island are expanding into shallower waters, in what researchers say is an indication of how rapidly climate change is affecting ocean life. Researchers at Memorial University, Ocean Networks Canada and the University of Victoria found the urchins, living as deep as 400 metres below, were expanding their populations into shallower water at an average rate of 3.5 metres per year as ocean warming reduces oxygen levels and food sources at lower depths.
A First Nation in British Columbia will receive a boost from the province for shoreline stabilization, with the chief saying it is under consistent threat of flooding. The $5 million aimed at so-called riprap erosion control measures is going to the Sqwa First Nation, Shxwha:y Village and the City of Chilliwack. The announcement comes a week after the province provided $23.4 million in funding to 49 communities to help reduce risks from future disasters related to natural hazards and climate change, including $150,000 for a drainage pump station upgrade design in Chilliwack.
He admitted it can be difficult, pointing to the ongoing challenge of pressuring the federal government to provide drinkable water to Canada’s remote Indigenous communities. Obed said there were 298 boil water advisories between 2015 and 2020, including four that went on for more than a year and 50 that lasted more than three months. “This is part of our job,” he said of keeping Canadian government leaders accountable to fix these problems. “Our job is to articulate and quantify what it means to eliminate an infrastructure gap. These require billions of dollars, new relationships, and on ongoing effort where you tweak it over time.”
Wild and wacky weather events like atmospheric rivers, derechos and bomb cyclones may seem new because of recent media coverage, but they’ve been known and named phenomena for quite some time in the history of meteorology and atmospheric science, speakers said Tuesday at the CatIQ Connect conference. What’s new is that they appear to be getting worse and more frequent as the climate changes. That means increasingly higher insured damage payouts for Canada’s P&C insurance industry.
The 15th round of negotiations to modernize the Columbia River Treaty was held in Vancouver on January 25 and 26. The Columbia River Treaty is a water management agreement that was implemented in 1964 between the United States and Canada. The U.S. prepaid Canada $64 million for a 60-year agreement to ensure flood control operations would be provided. The Columbia Treaty doesn’t have an end date but can be terminated by either country as of September 2024 or onward, if 10 years' notice is given.
About half of the 4,800 residents in the eastern Ohio town of East Palestine and those in the surrounding area, including parts of Pennsylvania, had to evacuate as officials monitored air and water quality following a controlled burn of chemicals released from damaged tank cars. The evacuation order was lifted Wednesday after the air was deemed safe.
Advanced and varied sensing and monitoring technologies protect the environment from harmful infections and toxins, according to Frost & Sullivan's recent analysis of emerging sensor technologies for environmental monitoring. Green sensors assess the chemical composition of the soil, purity of the water, and air quality. The small size, low power, signal processing, and communications capabilities of sensors will be the primary factors driving growth opportunities across industries.
OPG and Northland Power Inc have proposed a first-of-a-kind project for Canada that would develop a pumped storage project at a long inactive, open-pit iron ore mine. The Marmora Pumped Storage Project is a joint-venture between the two power producers. Located in the Municipality of Marmora and Lake in Ontario, the proposed 400MW closed-loop pumped storage facility could power up to 400,000 homes at peak demand with clean, renewable electricity for up to five hours.
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.
A mild winter has meant not very much ice has formed on the Great Lakes and Lake St. Clair. "This year is an extraordinary year," said Steve Salmons, president and CEO of the Windsor Port Authority. Salmons says the lack of ice means ships have easier time of navigating but it doesn't mean a higher volume of goods moves because most ships are taken out of service for winter maintenance and the locks close seasonally anyway.
The company behind a massive, multibillion-dollar green energy plan is asking Newfoundland and Labrador's top court to stop protestors from blocking access to its work sites on the Port au Port Peninsula. Lawyers for World Energy GH2 were in Supreme Court in Corner Brook on Thursday afternoon for a hastily called hearing. A group of protesters has been blocking an access road to one of World Energy's sites, on Newfoundland's west coast, for weeks.
One year after the Super Bowl season was marred by a ban on Mexican avocado shipments, another threat has emerged: An environmental complaint that avocado growers are destroying forests that provide critical habitat for monarch butterflies and other creatures. The complaint, filed with the trilateral Commission for Environmental Cooperation, part of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade accord, accuses the Mexican government of failing to enforce its own laws on deforestation, water conservation and land use.
For the first time in seven years, residents in Prince Rupert will be able to drink water once again from Woodworth Lake, the City of Prince Rupert announced on Feb. 8. With the completion of the new Woodworth Dam in October 2022, water levels have now risen enough to return the supply to the primary source instead of Shawatlans Lake from where it has been pumped since 2016.
Air flowing over cold surfaces is an age-old concept that’s making a big comeback due to the increased attention being paid to carbon emissions and electrical grid demands. The ancient Persians used specially designed wind catcher towers, many of which can still be seen today in parts of the Middle East and North Africa. Air funnels down to interior spaces through precisely designed openings and canals and sometimes across pools of cold subterranean water and then back up. Some water pools can even produce sheets of ice on their surface. The warm air rises and exits through another tower or opening, aided by the pressure within the building. Although there are variations to the commercial processes available today, the principals behind ice cooling remain relatively straightforward.
Wetlands are among the most threatened ecosystems in the world. A new study, published in Nature, has found that the loss of wetland areas around the globe since 1700 has likely been overestimated. This is good news overall, however, the global picture hides significant variations, with several regions and distinct wetland types under significant levels of pressure. For instance, temperate river floodplains have been highly impacted while remote boreal-arctic peatlands remain comparatively unharmed. While wetland conversion and degradation has slowed globally, it continues apace in some regions, such as Indonesia, where large swaths of land are being cleared for oil palm plantations and other agricultural uses. This new global perspective on wetland loss can help prioritize conservation and restoration actions.
