Great Water Challenge done! Let Genius Hour and akgtcanada150 begin

@GWC
@Waterlution We are stewards of water. First Nations Hegus challenged us to only use what we need! We challenge you to be water stewards!

Great Waters Challenge #4

A note from the Assumption Grade 4/5 students

We only could see one of the blogs in our group but she shared the same idea of protecting and preserving water quality.

The children are young and passionate stewards of clean drinking water.  They live on the coast and want to know that we adults have taken the best care of their water sources that we possibly can. 

This includes the parents, teachers, community drinking water systems in towns and regions across our nation making certain the water quality and quantity meets the needs of the community.  

Our First Nations Hegus (Chief) shared the challenge for us to recycle, and only use what we need!

Our City Mayor who is an alumni from our school expressed his pride in the attempt of our young classroom to learn about water issues.  

The students are sponges, who want to learn, who want to share, and who want to be seen as stewards of the world.  We take care of salmon, we grow micro greens, we preserve water, we will teach our primary Grade 2 class about this project in January!

Thanks for the opportunity to learn with all the adults and high school students.  We had fun.  We look forward to talking with the Gjoa Haven students this month!

Good luck in the contest!

Thanks from Carol Wyatt's Grade 4/5 classroom at Assumption School, Powell River BC

Great Water Challenge #3

We just completed Great Water Challenge #3

It was interesting!

Great water challenge
#3

Assumption Grade 4/5

POWELL RIVER

Interview with Mayor Formosa

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Water System and Management

•Powell River owns its own water system.

•All of the city water comes from Haslam Lake with Powell River as a backup.

•We have lots of fresh water to drink.

•Our watershed is very safe and clean.

Powell River Dam

•The Powell River Dam was built for electricity in the early 1900s.

•The Dam stopped salmon getting up the river and the builders did not think much about this then.

•No animal or tree habitats were ruined, but sockeye and coho runs were lost.

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POWELL RIVER FALLS before 1911

Picture from Major Matthews collection of Vancouver City Archives

Haslam Lake watershed

•The local government does not allow people to go boating (with motors) or camping on Haslam Lake

•The watershed was managed by the Powell River Mill and the City of Powell River

•The watershed was monitored by the logging company

•Make sure no one dumps stuff in this lake

Haslam Lake

Picture from www.vanishinghistory.com

Powell River 

•WE RESPECT OUR WATER VERY MUCH!

TLA’AMIN FIRST NATION

INTERVIEW WITH HEGUS 

CLINT WILLIAMS

The Tla’amin People

•The Tla’amin people drink from the lake.

•Mike Williams manages the water source.

•They carefully monitor the stuff that goes in and out of the watershed.

•They are concerned if the lake gets polluted.

Sliammon Lake,

Sliammon Creek

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Shared History with Powell River 

•The dam gives power to the Mill which makes paper.

•There were problems with delivering water from Powell River when the Tla’amin People lost their treaties and rights.

•There were lots of habitats lost: including sockeye and cohosalmon spawning sites.

All about the Powell River Dam at the

Powell River Mill

Powell River Dam

Used to make power for the Powell River Paper company

Early 1900s 

Archives from Powell River Museum

Tla’amin Hatchery

•We built and use the Hatchery on our lands for the people to use and enjoy

•Rock slides and logging affected the animals and fish but we control our own hatchery and maintain it

Salmon hatchery

Tla’amin First Nation website

Photo use approved by Hegus Williams

Memories of the Hegus

•“My favourite memories of water activities as a child are fishing, swimming, and boating”

•Remember “recycle, don’t litter, never take more than you need.  Enjoy all the wonderful things Mother Nature provides for us in a sustainable manner.”

Powell River

INTERVIEW WITH 

PATRICK BRABAZON

(man in the middle)

Picture taken by Resource Recovery Centre,

Powell River

The Lois Lake Dam
and Regional District

•The plants that were lost were not unique to the area

•Many of the dam builders did not really think about damage to habitats back then

Lois Lake Dam

Eagle River

Management of District water sources

•The current upgrade plan was to make drinking water safe, but the cost of upgrades is $2 billion and this is a challenging cost

•Most of the land water use for homes is from local lakes or creeks or wells

•Texada Island has two large operations and most island homes are on wells

•Vancouver Coastal Health Authority is responsible to test it

Water safety

•Arsenic is a big problem in some parts of the district

•Sulphur also common 

•When they drilled into bedrock they did not know what they would find

•When arsenic level was too high, people used bottled water or filter systems

•Even our school must now test water yearly for lead and other stuff

Climate Change

•All the government leaders were worried about climate change:

•Flooding in some low areas

•Erosion is a big problem

•Safe drinking water to meet demand in next 50 years

•Storms

From the class of Grade 4/5s

•Thank you to the government leaders of our area for your information

•Keep our water safe

•Keep our water clean and drinkable

•We promise to keep learning

•Keep the dams safe  

•Protect the creatures of our area

Great Water Challenge #3

We have contacted the Hegus Chief of Tla'amin First Nation,  our Mayor of Powell River,  and the Regional District Manager. We plan to discuss:

• history of the local watershed, governance management history (which we have found in our historical documents search last week),
•  concerns about species loss (old growth forest, salmon, etc.), and
• climate change concerns in our region.

Carol Wyatt

Great Water Challenge #2

This Friday, 28 October, and Week #2 of the Great Water Challenge project for Grade 4/5 was challenging.  We studied historical information from 1965 to 2000 about local water systems.  This included Haslam Lake, Lang Creek, Myrtle Pond, and Sliammon Lake.  Students know now that :

Sliammon uses more than 100 000 gallons of water daily from Sliammon Lake.  

They needed a water license to use the water.

Powell Riverites use about 738  litres of water a day each from Haslam Lake.

They also needed a water license.

Haslam Lake cannot have float homes on it and recreational boating is very limited to boats that don't use fuel.

Tla'amin First Nation is the only user of Sliammon Lake water but they can get more from Powell River.

The water sources including the Pacific Ocean and Sliammon Lake are very important culturally and historically to Tla'amin people for fish, clams, prawns, salmon, and their community water needs.

They also get water from Sliammon Creek and Kwolann Spring.

Lang Creek is important for fisheries and local residents.  

Myrtle Pond is used by residents and fire department.

Myrtle Pond Water System is over 40 years old.

 Haslam Lake is chlorinated.

These are some of the facts the students discovered in their study of local historical documents.

Great Water Challenge #1

Our first day of no water bottles or access to the fountain in the hall was tough.   It was also gym class today.  We waited until the time set for our water break every two hours and we were all uncomfortably thirsty by then since we are used to having clean, unlimited water in our water bottles.  We talked this afternoon about how frustrated the moms and dads must feel that their families do not have safe clean water available all the time.  Our students wondered what illnesses could be caused by drinking this dangerous water.
 We saw the video of the interview with Prime Minister Trudeau at Shoal Lake 40 Reserve in Manitoba.  How much money is needed to improve all poor water systems on Canadian First Nations communities across Canada?  He promised to fix the problem and said that he keeps his promises.   Does he have a 5 or 6 year plan to fix this problem?

Rocks and minerals

We are leaning about rocks and minerals they are so cool.  What do you like best about minerals and geology?
m t