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.
As the seasons shift to spring and plants start to bloom, one ethnobotanist is encouraging gardeners to plant seeds that naturally grow in their part of the province. Bren Beckwith, co-founder of KinSeed Ecologies in Nelson, B.C. — an offshoot of the Kootenay Native Plant Society — says native plants "are the foundation of local ecosystems." "The plants themselves are part of this community," said Beckwith.
Quebec will give $2.4 billion over 10 years to help municipalities work on their water and wastewater infrastructure. "We want to repair our water system in Quebec. It's expensive. Our drinking water, we must be careful," said Municipal Affairs Minister Andrée Laforest in an interview with The Canadian Press. This assistance is part of a municipal water infrastructure program called PRIMEAU. Previous PRIMEAU programs had a total envelope of $826.7 million.
Swift Current will remain in a state of emergency, as rising waters encroach on the edges of the Swift Current Creek, officials said Saturday. The city declared the emergency as a proactive measure on Tuesday evening, in response to rising creek levels. The declaration allows the southwestern Saskatchewan city to restrict access to areas that are under flood conditions and to work zones.
As severe flash flooding and severe water damage become a rising risk in Canada, coverage and broker talking points are evolving to address the intensity and frequency of extreme weather. Spring thaw is creating opportunities for drainage backups and property damage due to yo-yoing temperatures and unpredictable precipitation. According to Jim Mandeville, senior vice president, large loss at First Onsite Property Restoration, “insurance policies are evolving with changing climate concerns, which is something brokers should emphasize to clients who may be vulnerable.” Mandeville has years of experience working in the disaster relief sector, being on the front lines of restoration and mitigation projects across North America including Hurricane Sandy, the Slave Lake wildfires of 2011 and the Fort McMurray flooding of 2013, to name a few.
UBC researchers have developed a treatment to remove hazardous ‘forever chemicals’ from our environment. Professor Madjid Mohseni has been at the forefront of the research effort, working with his colleagues in Quebec where polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, have been detected in that province’s water sources. “In B.C. unfortunately, the data is lacking so we hope to start gathering that information to determine how widespread the problem is…we are at stage now to take what we have developed from the lab testing and test it out in field studies,” Mohseni said.
AFN Manitoba Regional Chief Cindy Woodhouse spoke at the United Nations Water Conference recently in New York to highlight the rights of First Nations when it comes to safe drinking water. Woodhouse talked about water governance and the need for intensified action to realize the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation for all indigenous peoples. Some 10,000 participants gathered at UN Headquarters and online from March 22-24 to address the water crisis and “ensure equitable access to water for all.”
Sewage Lagoons for Dawson? It appears the Yukon government is pushing forward with building sewage lagoons to replace the failed sewage treatment plant they built not too long ago. I believe they chose sewage lagoons as they are typically cost effective to build and operate and do work in Canada’s far north. What I don’t believe is that they have put much in the way of thought into this decision and have not done all the appropriate “due diligence” that should be done when determining “best options”.
The water was rising around her car, and Amanda Valentine thought she was going to die. She had just gotten a warning on her phone about flash flooding, and now it was all around her. “I called my parents like, ‘I'm going to die. Like I'm going to drown. There's no way for me to get out of this car,"' Valentine said. "And they couldn't help me. I called 911, and they told me they couldn't help me."
An N.W.T. diamond mine "misunderstood" its reporting requirements earlier this year when it failed to flag a massive groundwater spill, according to the territorial government. A broken pipeline leaked 450,000 cubic metres of groundwater — enough to fill 180 Olympic-sized swimming pools — and was first spotted at the Diavik mine on Feb. 7, the N.W.T.'s lands department (now the Department of Environment and Climate Change) said in March.
Snow-wise, it hasn't been a great year in the Rocky Mountains, says Canmore-based water expert John Pomeroy. "[The snowpack] is in the lowest quarter to lowest 10 per cent of all years measured over the last half century in the Kananaskis-Banff region," said Pomeroy, who is Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change at the University of Saskatchewan. "It's definitely a low snow year."
The Okanagan Indian Band has completed a major upgrade to its water system. The Six Mile/Bradley Creek system has been improved by upgrading wells, expanding and updating the water treatment system, and doubling reservoir capacity. The system has also been connected to the band’s Irish Creek/Head of the Lake system, which received two new larger reservoirs and a control station. OKIB Public Works & Housing director Jolene Vincent says each reservoir has doubled its capacity, from 400 to 800 cubic square metres each. The community using the Six Mile system had been under a water advisory since May 2019 due to elevated manganese levels in its water. This meant it wasn't safe for pregnant women or children under two.
Medicine Hat, Alta. will begin testing for asbestos due to "community concerns" following a W5 investigation that showed the presence of fibres in the tap water of two Canadian cities. About 32 per cent of Medicine Hat’s watermain network — roughly 140 kilometres — is made up of asbestos cement pipe and is among the 85 communities W5 revealed to have those pipes still in use underground.
The B.C. Energy Regulator (BCER) is investigating after Coastal GasLink (CGL) reported two spills of clay lubricant while it was tunnelling under the Morice River to build a natural gas pipeline through northern British Columbia. The area around the Morice River has for years been the site of conflict between Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs and supporters, and CGL, its workers and the RCMP.
Canadians value clean water and a sustainable environment. Environment and Climate Change Canada enforcement officers work to verify that businesses and individuals comply with laws and regulations that protect Canada's natural environment. On March 17, 2023, in the Provincial Court of British Columbia, Keller Foundations Ltd. was ordered to pay a total penalty of $1 million after pleading guilty to one charge laid for violations of subsection 36(3) of the federal Fisheries Act. The charge stemmed from an investigation into the deaths of approximately 85 Cutthroat Trout in Larson Creek in West Vancouver. The fine will be directed to the Government of Canada's Environmental Damages Fund and will support projects that have a positive impact on Canada's natural environment.
Shawn Chorney offered to be the first to take a drink of water from the pond at the Education Centre this summer. The vice president of Canadore College’s Enrolment Management, Indigenous and Student Services, helped launch and open its new Water Teaching Lodge. The lodge is located in the First Peoples’ Centre in the main campus off College Drive. The lodge and the construction of an operational water treatment facility on campus will provide a new approach to clean water and technology that prioritizes Indigenous teachings about water.
Well, the numbers are in, and they should terrify all of us. March was an extremely dry month throughout the Okanagan Valley, with Kelowna experiencing its sixth driest month on record. To the north, Vernon had its fourth driest month on record and Penticton had its second driest March on record, with only 1.8 mm of precipitation compared with an average of 23.6 mm. Those are some troubling numbers, especially when contrasted with a city skyline increasingly dotted with cranes, as Kelowna continues to be one of the fastest-growing cities in Canada.
The prime minister's multi-stop visit in Winnipeg on Wednesday included a late-day meeting with Scott Gillingham, where the mayor says he cited inflationary pressures among the reasons why the city needs more financial help from the federal government for three major capital projects. "We as a city, the ratepayers of Winnipeg, cannot bear the total cost of the increases related to inflation," Gillingham told CBC News after his meeting with Justin Trudeau.
Members of a Canadian conservation organization are working on a project to increase biodiversity and healthy wetlands in British Columbia with the help of beavers. Ducks Unlimited Canada is mapping areas in the province where beavers can replace artificial dams once they've been decommissioned. "Beavers are a keystone species," said Jen Rogers, a master's student at Simon Fraser University working with Ducks Unlimited Canada. "They're considered ecosystem engineers."
Nova Scotia's environment minister has approved a second green hydrogen production plant in Point Tupper, N.S. Bear Head Energy plans to construct the green hydrogen and ammonia facility in the Point Tupper Industrial Park on the Strait of Canso at the same location it had once planned to build a liquefied natural gas plant. The company will produce green hydrogen by drawing water from Landrie Lake, then using renewable energy from wind turbines to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen through a process called electrolysis. It will then convert the hydrogen into ammonia, which makes it easier to ship hydrogen long distances.
A flash flood led the southwestern Manitoba municipality of Boissevain-Morton to declare a state of emergency Wednesday, a municipal councillor says, as the spring snow melt sent a torrent of water gushing over frozen farm fields and washing out roads. The municipality estimates that at least 70 per cent of roads in the southern part of Boissevain-Morton, which is south of Brandon, were unsafe for travel due to washouts and overland flooding, according to a Wednesday Facebook post.
