Guest Blog: Erin Kennedy, Robot Missions What will shoreline cleanup look like in the future?Manual shoreline cleanup efforts are fuelled by the human spirit to show support for our planet. While this is important and impactful, often times the tiny-trash debris goes unnoticed or undetected while collecting the larger, more visible, items. Pieces such as nurdles, cigarette butts, styrofoam - all of which poses an ecological threat to the wildlife.Below are photos of the tiny…

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The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission recently released its Environmental Risk Assessments (ERA) for the Pickering Waste Management Facility.While the ERA does address certain issues Waterkeeper has brought up in recent submissions, there are still several information gaps.Issues still needing to be addressed include:Effluent sampling data for all identified contaminants at the PWMF;Any assessment of how liquid waste treatment will be impacted by a new processing building that will double processing capacity;Information about stormwater monitoring (including…

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Residents and volunteers from Muskoka Brewery and Evergreen testing the water at Humber Bay Park West.  It was mercifully coolish and overcast at Humber Bay Park last Monday.  We were hosting a waterfront visit with the good people from Evergreen and Muskoka Brewery. Their freshwater fund is helping Lake Ontario Waterkeeper pay for water quality monitoring this summer.This is our go-to spot for group events, because we can always count on a fresh supply of…

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 This week Lake Ontario Waterkeeper staff made a promise to protect the Great Lakes - and now we're inviting you to do the same.The Great Lakes define our borders, inhabit our memories, and nourish our culture. We, along with tens of mllions of people play on their shores, drink their water, and enjoy the fish within.At Waterkeeper, we know that together we can start a movement for a swimmable, drinkable, fishable future for our Great…

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 This week Lake Ontario Waterkeeper staff made a promise to protect the Great Lakes - and now we're inviting you to do the same.The Great Lakes define our borders, inhabit our memories, and nourish our culture. We, along with tens of mllions of people play on their shores, drink their water, and enjoy the fish within.At Waterkeeper, we know that together we can start a movement for a swimmable, drinkable, fishable future for our Great…

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See below for the full Canada Beach Report. How much you know about water quality at your local beach depends on where you live in Canada, reveals the Canada Beach Report, a new report on the state of recreational water quality monitoring across the country.Government routinely tests beaches and compares results to recreational water quality guidelines in order to protect public health from exposure to contaminated water. But water testing and public communications practices vary…

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Lake Ontario Waterkeeper’s first water sampling workshop at Breakwater Park, Kingston ONAt Lake Ontario Waterkeeper our citizen science programs were all born out of the question “what can I do to help?”The term citizen science is newly coined. The involvement of the public in scientific research and data collection is not. Governments, research bodies, and schools frequently call on the public to test new technologies, collect data on everything from endangered animals and invasive species…

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Lake Ontario Waterkeeper’s first water sampling workshop at Breakwater Park, Kingston ONAt Lake Ontario Waterkeeper our citizen science programs were all born out of the question “what can I do to help?”The term citizen science is newly coined. The involvement of the public in scientific research and data collection is not. Governments, research bodies, and schools frequently call on the public to test new technologies, collect data on everything from endangered animals and invasive species…

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 Wetland loss a cause of algal blooms in Great Lakes, study finds - Metro Toronto “People in urban areas have to be careful about the kind of fertilizers they use in their lawns and gardens... In a heavy rain year like this one, any of that can end up directly into the closest lake... You never want to wait until somebody’s dog dies or something extreme happens.” — Krystyn Tully, Vice President, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper .@krystynt…

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July was a busy for our team, so here's a quick rundown of the media coverage from this month. We've been in the news speaking on issues like algae in the Great Lakes, the impacts of heavy rainfall on water quality, the Sewage Bypass Reporting Act, Grandmother Water Wakers in Kingston, and obstruction toward Donald Trump's proposed cuts to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.July 2017Wetland loss a cause of algal blooms in Great Lakes, study finds -…

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