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.
Response teams said they controlled the situation before it reached the provincial parkland and that the substance was non-agricultural source material. "Which is essentially treated organic and other waste that's already ready to go get applied to farmers' fields to fertilize crops, so it was a safe certified material," Watts explained. The agency is doing an assessment, but it's believed a check valve failed at the biosolids complex, causing the overflow.
Three main barriers impede access to safe services for many people in high-income countries, according to the new paper. First, systemic racism underlies inequities and limits access to resources, said the article. Historically marginalized people and low-income communities are more likely to lack access to safe water and sanitation. Those groups include minority racial and ethnic populations as well as Indigenous communities, migrants and people of colour, said the co-authors. In the United States, for instance, the authors found Native American households are 19 times more likely, and Black or Latinx households are nearly twice as likely, to be without functional water and wastewater access than households identifying as white. Second, changes to infrastructure financing, including a move to full-cost pricing in HICs, have reduced subsidies to people lacking services. Third, gaps persist because availability and quality of services are tied to housing and property ownership. Linking property to water and sanitation services is a policy choice that disadvantages groups including migrants, people living in poverty and people experiencing homelessness or in unstable housing, said the paper.
"The number of weather related disasters such as severe rain or ice storms has grown over the past 100 years from almost one per year in the early 1900s to an annual average of about three since the year 2000." Ice cover on the Great Lakes is 26 per cent lower than it was 50 years ago, the report found. "And Ontario's growing season has lengthened by about 13 days from 1950 to 2018," Shulz said. There are increased algae blooms in Lake Erie and rising levels of microplastics in Lake Ontario. Dissolved oxygen levels, important for aquatic organisms such as fish, are improving in Lake Simcoe, but do not meet the environment minister's targets. The report said 60 per cent of monitored rivers and streams rate "poor" to "very poor" for biological health.
Canada has plenty of natural wonders, and one lake nestled in the Alberta Rockies has been named one of the best places to see the clearest water in the world. The gem-colored lake is about an hour’s drive from the Banff townsite and about a two-hour drive from the Jasper townsite to its north. The lake and Peyto Glacier were named after Bill Peyto who was a renowned mountain guide and pioneer in Banff. You can hike for around 10 minutes to the viewpoint to take pictures of the stunning lake.
A group in Glace Bay, N.S., says the water in a local lake is contaminated and is asking the provincial government to clean it up before stocking the pond with more trout. The No. 20 Dam Sport Fishing Association paid to have the water tested at the John Bernard Croak Memorial Park on Beacon Street in September and president Donald McNeil said the results show levels of E. coli and total coliform that exceed Health Canada guidelines.
The Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine has issued evacuation orders for the communities of Old Remo and New Remo, which are on low-lying flood plains just west of Terrace, B.C. In a written statement, the district says it issued the evacuation orders because the flooding poses an imminent threat to people and properties in the two communities.
The Hamlet of Fort McPherson, N.W.T., declared a state of emergency over flooding on Tuesday evening. In a post on Facebook, the hamlet said it made the decision because flooding from the Peel River had cut off access to the community's airport and because access to fresh water could be "inaccessible in the imminent future." Earlier in the day, the hamlet said an emergency would be declared once flooding cut off the community's access to Deep Water Lake — meaning it would no longer have access to its water or sewage services.
The recommendations in the policy brief included updating the current water-audit form to suit 2023 conditions and more widely using it as a tool to educate citizens about water consumption. They also suggested The City recommend Alberta’s Ministry of Education amend elementary and secondary curriculums to include age-appropriate water-literacy programs.
Leaders and community members in the Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) of Kanesatake are demanding help in decontaminating a dump site that could affect water quality in one of Quebec's most popular lakes. Mohawk Council of Kanestake Grand Chief Victor Bonspille said he is in contact with Canada and his community's environmental protection office to find a solution to toxic water leaking off a now-closed recycling operation in the community west of Montreal.
Line 5 transports crude oil through the heart of the Great Lakes, an invaluable cultural resource for residents and visitors to the region who benefit from the connection with the water and the land. The pipeline has already leaked 29 times, spilling over 4.5 million litres of oil and putting 84 percent of North America’s surface freshwater at risk. And yet, Canada continues to prioritize the ongoing operation of the pipeline over this critical global freshwater system.
The research coming out of Global Water Futures (GWF) is being presented at an open science meeting over three days from May 15–17, and will highlight some of the best science and knowledge addressing solutions for Canada’s water futures, including advancements in the forecasting and modelling of snow, glaciers, water quality, soil moisture, floods and droughts, in monitoring of water quality, in detection of the COVID-19 virus in community wastewater, in Indigenous co-creation of knowledge, and in how national and international policies could achieve water sustainability.
Much of Alberta and Saskatchewan relies on water from melting snow in the Rocky Mountains for replenishment of waterways in the summer. But John Pomeroy — director of the University of Saskatchewan's Coldwater Laboratory in Canmore, Alta. — told CBC that this past winter provided one of the lowest snowpacks he's seen. The snow also melted about six weeks earlier than anticipated, fuelled by the unseasonably warm weather.
Streicker says the priority is to ensure that the site is secure, and that water treatment continues. He said the territorial government immediately hired a contractor who then had the water treatment facilities back up and running "basically within 24 hours." "The team has moved very quickly and the reports I'm getting are that things are in hand," Streicker said Monday morning.
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.
Water management is becoming a hot topic as Spain gears up for regional and municipal elections this month and a national vote later in the year, as farmers and other industries vie for an increasingly scarce resource. Spain has one swimming pool for every 37 residents, and these, too, are now in the spotlight. In Vacarisses, a scattered town of more than a dozen subdivisions with views of the Montserrat mountain range, residents are bracing for another difficult summer after enduring 16-hour water cuts last year when aquifers ran dry.
“I have been privileged enough to find a path of work in environmental and water stewardship. This work has been deeply rewarding despite the overwhelming sense of urgency to address the climate and the biodiversity crises we have put ourselves in.” The annual BC Achievement Community Awards recognize extraordinary British Columbians who build better, stronger and more resilient communities. The Mitchell Award of Distinction recognizes one individual in particular who demonstrates “an unwavering commitment to elevating people around them”. Hartwig’s lifelong work in environmental conservation, and her selfless leadership style that empowers others to lead and excel, was the rationale provided by the BC Achievement Foundation for singling out Hartwig as this year’s Mitchell Award designate.
The Alberta Energy Regulator has warned Imperial Oil about more wastewater problems at its Kearl oilsands mine in northern Alberta. The regulator has issued a notice of non-compliance to the company after chemicals associated with oilsands tailings were found at an off-site well at levels that exceed provincial guidelines.
A number of Canadian cities have exceeded acceptable chloride levels in watersheds in recent years, raising concerns about the impact on freshwater wildlife and other species. The problem largely stems from road salt and saline solutions, which have a chemical compound of chloride to keep roadways safe during winter weather.
A Nova Scotia farming group is concerned about the amount of water being used for agriculture this spring, but a provincial hydrologist says underground water levels are normal for this time of year. The current conditions have prompted Agriculture Canada to classify much of Nova Scotia as "abnormally dry," and categorize Truro and part of the Annapolis Valley as having a moderate drought. "It's getting to a point now where things are really drying out," said Allan Melvin, a sixth-generation farmer from the Annapolis Valley and president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture.
A state of emergency has been declared in the northwestern Ontario town of Atikokan following the failure of a culvert on a major roadway. The culvert failure led to a 15-metre section of Mercury Avenue being washed out, the town said in a news release late Thursday afternoon. The washout also disrupted a water main that runs along Mercury Avenue, which has led to a drop in water pressure across the town. A boil-water advisory has also been issued. "I did not take the decision to declare a state of emergency lightly, and after considerable deliberation with our Municipal Emergency Control Group, it became obvious that this is the correct decision," Atikokan Mayor Rob Ferguson said in a statement.
