The War Over Water ::

The War Over Water

Canada dreads becoming water supplier to the United States--draining its lakes to fill California swimming pools, water Arizona golf courses, irrigate Midwestern farms and ease East Coast drought. Already British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland, Ontario and Quebec have either banned or announced plans to ban large-scale water exports. Canada clings to its fresh water for fear of damaging ecosystems.

Manitoba is using the same argument to block the United States’ plan to ease the flooding of Devil’s Lake in North Dakota by draining water into the Red River. The US Corps of Engineers is drawing up designs for a $110 million pipline, spillway and pumping system that will lower its lake levels by sending water to Canada.

They will begin digging for the 18-month project in the fall of 2000. Governor Ed Schafer of North Dakota says Manitoba’s environmental concerns are "silly" and adds: Canada will get the US water "one way or another."

Manitoba’s fears are that foreign aquatic life and disease will be introduced to the Red River watershed. The invasive zebra mussel, for instance, has caused millions of dollars damage to US ships, docks and water treatment systems. Whirling disease is killing river trout. Lake Winnipeg is the world’s 10th largest freshwater lake and home to a $17 million-a-year fishing industry.
--Star Tribune
December 12, 1999

Source: alive #Nitrate-contaminated Water

Canada's Water Under Threat
Arm-twisting has begun by huge global corporations and financial institutions to get their foot in the door of what they perceive to be an excellent business opportunity--the exploitation of Canadian water.

Water, Water Everywhere
Ever since Walkerton's tragic deadly E. coli outbreak, Canadians across this country are asking, "Is our tap water really safe?" We have every right to ask. Walkerton, a fiasco of cover-ups and incompetence whose resulting deaths and illnesses were unnecessary, could have happened anywhere in Canada..

Like Oil and Water
Modern farming activities are no longer limited to small, family-owned operation.

Parasites: Unwanted Guests
Do you feel tired most of the time? Suffer from digestive problems, food sensitivities or allergic-like reactions? Do you have difficulty gaining or losing weight? Have you tried a yeast-control program, yet can't stay away from sugar? Is something not quite right physically, but you can't pinpoint the cause? Welcome to t.

Can You Swallow This?
Multinationals are poised to profit from the privatization of Canada's domestic water supplies.

Questioning Water Safety
Studies undertaken in Europe, the United States and Canada have detected a wide range of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in surface water, groundwater and even drinking water systems.

Water Pollution From Drugs And Cosmetics

Lighten Your Load
Heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, and aluminum are natural components of the earth's crust; sometimes called trace metals, these metals were in our environment in only tiny amounts until the last century, when industrial uses became common.

Quench That Thirst-Safely

Cruise Ship Waste
The ocean glitters in the wake of the magnificent white cruise ship while you wine and dine at sumptuous buffets and then dance the night away in a starlit ballroom. Cruise lines promise decadence and opulence. But there is a darker side to the story.

Nitrate-contaminated Water
Grade 10 students in Pierson, Manitoba, were given a well-testing project in a horticultural and environmental studies class. Of 20 samples submitted for analysis, 12 came back with unacceptably high bacteria or nitrate level.

Industrial Solvent in Drinking Water
The drinking water in some Ontario communities has been found to contain high levels of trichlorethelene (TCE), a toxic industrial solvent, provincial water quality disclosure records show. Tens of thousands of people have been exposed to the compound in recent years at levels considered risky in the United States..

Clean-Conscience Sewage Treatment
Sewage treatment is fun to learn about in Bear River, Nova Scotia. The town's solar aquatic treatment system is actually a tourist destination for 2,000 visitors a year. What makes the plant so unique is that it relies on natural processes to help sanitize waste, which saves energy and doesn't cause water pollution.

Water woes

Malnutrition and bacterial infection

What's on Tap?
Every so often, you hear something that really wakes you up to an issue. This happened to me while talking to Dr. Warren Bell about drugs in our water.

Marine Mystery
Thousands of poisonous, heartless, brainless creatures are taking over vast swaths of the world's oceans. The boneless blobs might seem otherworldly, but they aren't aliens-they're jellyfish. In certain seas, their populations are exploding, and some scientists view the phenomenon as a sign of ecological disaster.

Petro Problems in Cowboy Country
When it comes to mega-profits from mega-oil, the province of Alberta was not careful enough about what it wished for. What it has been granted, along with the riches, is a nightmarish mess of pollution that it has not begun to address.

From Sea to Stinking Sea
Bathroom jokes aside, few of us think about sewage, assuming that what we flush away will somehow take care of itself. But such an out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude will no longer float, so to speak.

Volunteers for the Environment
We are so closely connected to other forms of life on our planet that survival without them is unthinkable. And although we have the power of intellect, we can never consider ourselves as superior. On the contrary, we need these species in order to survive.

Killer Protection
The West Coast’s most iconic marine mammals—orcas or killer whales—are under attack and facing many serious threats throughout their Pacific habitat.