Water News
Alberta Water News is a free, subscription-based service that provides the latest information on water news across Alberta and upcoming events.
The news is distributed weekly on Mondays via a collated email and Monday to Friday via WaterPortal social media (X was Twitter). Please note that news will not be distributed on Holiday Mondays and will be released the following Tuesday.
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Alberta regulator issues clean-up order to Cenovus after diesel spill in northern Alberta lake
CBC News
Cenovus Energy Inc. has been issued a clean-up order by the Alberta Energy Regulator after more than 1,000 litres of diesel spilled into a northern Alberta lake. The non-compliance order issued by the regulator last week says Cenovus was operating a temporary diesel generator earlier this month near Rainbow Lake as a result of the loss of electricity infrastructure due to wildfire. Click here to continue reading
Compare and Contrast: ‘We could lose our status as a state’: what happens to a people when their land disappears
The Guardian
Small island nations would rather fight than flee, but rising sea levels have prompted apocalyptic legal discussions about whether a state is still a state if its land disappears below the waves. Click here to continue reading
Making waves: SAIT students dive into real-world water solutions
Water Canada
Water, water everywhere! It’s a compound we can’t live without. Yet, as much as we rely on water for our survival, it can also be a source of damage — with flooding wreaking havoc on crops and communities, and scarcity impacting health and survival. Southern Alberta Institute of Technology’s (SAIT) Integrated Water Management students are starting local with solutions to tackle the threat of flooding damage as well as increasing conservation in landscape use. Click here to continue reading
CBRM advancing plans to establish a UARB-regulated water/wastewater commission
Water Canada
Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) Council has moved a step forward in the establishment of a new governance and operational structure for water and wastewater in CBRM. The CBRM Water Utility and CBRM Wastewater Department are in process of becoming a Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (UARB)-regulated commission named the CBRM Water and Wastewater Commission. Click here to continue reading
Wastewater surveillance continues to show persistent levels of SARS-CoV-2 as society reopens, February to December 2022
Water Canada
Statistics Canada, in partnership with the National Microbiology Laboratory from the Public Health Agency of Canada, continues to collect the Canadian Wastewater Survey (CWS) to better understand the levels of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the wastewater of five Canadian municipalities (Metro Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Montréal, and Halifax). Click here to continue reading
After the flood: Alberta communities assessing damage as water levels recede
CBC News
West-central Alberta communities are assessing damage and making repairs as flood waters recede. In the town of Edson, 100 kilometres west of Edmonton, a state of local emergency ended Monday after a tumultuous two weeks of fire and flood. Flooding prompted the emergency declaration on June 19, just days after town residents had been given the green light to go home after six days under wildfire evacuation orders. Click here to continue reading
‘It’s absolutely guaranteed’: the best and worst case scenarios for sea level rise
The Guardian
Not only is dangerous sea level rise “absolutely guaranteed”, but it will keep rising for centuries or millennia even if the world stopped emitting greenhouse gases tomorrow, experts say. Rising seas are one of the most severe consequences of a heating climate that are already being felt. Since the 1880s, mean sea level globally has already risen by 16cm to 21cm (6-8in). Half of that rise has happened over the past three decades. Click here to continue reading
Rain gardens could save salmon from toxic tire chemicals
Science Daily
Specially designed gardens could reduce the amount of a toxic chemical associated with tires entering our waterways by more than 90 per cent, new research shows. The chemical 6PPD-quinone can form when car tires interact with the atmosphere. It enters rivers and streams when rain runs off roads into waterways. It is toxic to coho salmon, rainbow trout and some other fish. Click here to continue reading
Potentially harmful blue-green algae found at Twin Valley Reservoir north of Claresholm
CTV News
Alberta Health Services (AHS) is warning people to avoid the water at the Twin Valley Reservoir, north of Claresholm, Alta., due to the presence of blue-green algae. Blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, is naturally occurring but can potentially produce toxins that are harmful to people and pets. Click here to continue reading
‘Scary moment’ as orcas disrupt ocean boat race in latest display of puzzling behaviour
CBC News
A pod of killer whales bumped one of the boats in an endurance sailing race as it approached the Strait of Gibraltar, the latest encounter in what researchers say is a growing trend of aggressive interactions with Iberian orcas. Click here to continue reading