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.
Western Canadian municipalities are turning to solar to power water and wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) as a means to decarbonize and cut costs. The trend is particularly strong in sunny Alberta and Saskatchewan, where electricity is traditionally produced by natural gas or coal. Lumsden, a Saskatchewan town with a population of 1,800, turned to solar when its outdated lagoon system near a river meant stepping up to a mechanical WWTP.
The City of Iqaluit says its water treatment plant is to return to service Tuesday morning, more than a year after it was shut down due to contamination. The plant was initially shut down in October 2021 after fuel was detected in the city's water supply. A do-not-consume order was lifted in December of that year, but less than a week later it was discovered the water was contaminated by a tar-like substance.
The N.W.T.'s environment minister says he only learned about a spill of nearly six million litres of water from a Suncor oilsands sediment pond into the Athabasca River when he received a call from the Globe and Mail. It's the second time the Alberta government has failed to notify the territory of a spill that could impact northern waters. It comes just weeks after news broke that Imperial Oil's Kearl mine had been leaking contaminated water for months.
A recent national survey of Canadians by First Onsite Property Restoration — a property restoration company — found that when it came to property damage, flooding and mould are their top fears. In Ontario, 58% have fears of rising waters and 74% of Ontarians are worried about mould. Flooding is in the news of in Ontario. Whether it’s flooding on Toronto streets or several Ontario conservation authorities issuing flood warnings, spring has arrived. Climate change is making only making weather-related events worse. In the latest federal budget, the government announced new initiatives to address gaps in natural disaster protection.
A recent string of leaks from tailings ponds at oil sands operations upstream has once again drawn attention to the profound transformation Canada’s largest industry has had on the region – and the distrust that comes with it. In May, Calgary-based Imperial Oil notified Alberta’s energy regulator it had discovered discoloured water near its Kearl oil sands project. The regulator soon concluded the water had come from tailings ponds where the company stored the toxic sludge-like byproducts of bitumen mining. Environmental samples showed high levels of several toxic contaminants, including arsenic, iron, sulphate and hydrocarbon – all of which exceeded provincial guidelines.
St. Albert city council unanimously granted a water project an exemption to the city's own sustainable building policy on April 18, after city staff recently noticed the project's design potentially wasn't up-to-code environmentally. Despite the $33 million budget, the Sturgeon Heights Reservoir and Pump Station replacement project, which is already under construction, would need an estimated maximum of $1 million in additional funding if it were to be green certified as all new municipal buildings must be under the city's Sustainable Buildings Policy.
The Red River reached its peak in Fargo, N.D., early Saturday morning, but the flood level is still considered moderate, according to the U.S. National Weather Service. Amanda Lee, a service hydrologist at the National Weather Service, said the river crested at 29.74 feet (just over nine metres) in the North Dakota city, which is about 225 kilometres south of the U.S.-Canada border, around 2 a.m. on Saturday.
Residents living in Cumberland and Clarence-Rockland are taking precautionary measures, filling sandbags and preparing for the potential of flooding along the Ottawa River. Manon Lavergne is doing her best to ensure her home does not fall victim to rising flood waters. “We’re bypassing one of our underground sump pump pipes,” she said. “It actually helps when you’re not at home, at work and one of your neighbours, a nice neighbour, can look to see if your sump pump is functioning.”
Today, the Honourable Joyce Murray, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard; the Honourable Josie Osborne, B.C. Minister of Energy, Mines, and Low Carbon Innovation; and Chris O’Riley, President and CEO of BC Hydro, announced a joint investment of $32.7 million to support three decarbonization projects in British Columbia.
“After two years of severe drought, it is more critical than ever that we utilize our water resources as wisely as possible,” said board chair Leonard Lee in a press release. “The installation of water meters will help our community better understand their own consumption and will allow the SCRD to make efficiencies to further secure water supply for the region.” The leak detection and user water consumption benefits were highlighted in the release. "It is common for communities to realize a reduction in water consumption by 20% to 30%."
If you bring home a report card with grades like D, C-, B, and in some spots D and F you know you would have some explaining to do. The Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA) recently released the 2023 Watershed Report Card, a checkup on the health of the Niagara Peninsula watershed, focusing on surface and groundwater quality, forest conditions, and watershed features.
“It’s not just wildlife. These are important areas for our headwaters, the drinking water that supports ourselves, our industries and our natural ecosystems,” Feagan said. It’s those waters that have the attention of officials with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – Southern Alberta Chapter (CPAWS). “We want to make sure that trout populations are healthy, but we want to make sure the water itself is healthy,” said executive director Katie Morrison.
Work to restore two ponds in Stratford, P.E.I., is set to finally get underway this summer. The project to rehabilitate Moore's and Kelly's ponds got $250,000 from the federal and provincial governments last year, but the work was delayed after post-tropical storm Fiona swept across the province. Now the town expects contractors to be on site at Moore's Pond on Stratford Road as early as July.
Farmers can’t predict the future, but a new tool may help them get ahead of droughts and floods. The Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association partnered with Aquanty, a Waterloo, Ont.-based water resources firm, to develop a forecasting tool for the Assiniboine River basin and Pembina Valley and Plum River watersheds of the Red River basin.
UCalgary researchers behind the hugely successful COVID-19 wastewater monitoring program and online COVID tracker are convinced of the potential of wastewater as a public health tool, and they’re not alone. Genome Canada, through regional partner Genome Alberta, has awarded the research group $2M through their Genomic Applications Partnership Program (GAPP) to investigate the potential of wastewater monitoring to detect and track more viruses, in partnership with Alberta Health. An additional combined $4M in funding for the project was awarded by Alberta Health, Genome Quebec, and the Government of Canada.
California will provide 100% of the water requested by cities and farms for the first time in years thanks to winter storms that filled reservoirs and runoff from a record snowpack, regulators announced Thursday. The State Water Project will provide full allocations to 29 water agencies supplying about 27 million customers and 750,000 acres of farmland, the Department of Water Resources said. As late as March, the agency was only expecting to provide 75% of requested water supplies.
According to analysis published recently in the journal Nature Sustainability and led by the University of Saskatchewan (USask), most of the world’s protected areas—areas like nature preserves and national parks where human activity is restricted—have ecosystems that rely on groundwater. Of these protected areas, 85 per cent depend on groundwater from beyond protection boundaries, leaving ecosystems at risk from exterior contamination and overuse.
Distilled water has produced when the water has been boiled into vapor and then condensed into liquid in a separate vessel. The impurities such as contaminants and minerals of the original water do not boil below boiling point or near the boiling point of water left in the original container. Therefore, distilled water is a type of purified water.
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 putting together a task force to push for the timely completion of Winnipeg's most expensive infrastructure project, but the province isn't ready yet to commit any additional money to the project. Kevin Klein, the provincial environment minister and a former city councillor, and current Coun. Brian Mayes are teaming up for a new joint task force to advance wastewater projects, with particular focus on the North End Water Pollution Control Centre. Klein will serve as chair and Mayes will be vice-chair.
