Stella Bowles and her army of activist kids, testing the Canadian waters

September 12, 2018 11:25 AM

Stella Bowles was 11 years old when she first donned her rubber boots to test for water contamination in the LaHave River, which runs beside her home on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada. With her mentor, Dr. David Maxwell, she found unsafe levels of fecal contamination. She posted warning signs, started a Facebook page, and entered a science fair, and helped convince the federal, provincial, and municipal governments to spend $15 million (Canadian) to install septic systems. Now she's using her award money and donations to create an army of activist kids to test local waters. Stella is one of 25 Top Canadian Environmentalists under 25.
posted by filthy light thief (4 comments total)

Bonus links: Stella's website, and her Twitter account.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:26 AM on September 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Impressive!
posted by maurreen at 7:42 PM on September 12, 2018

She's pretty awesome.

But here's the tragedy, aside from the environmental one - the adults in the area in question couldn't figure out that this was a problem in need of urgent remedy.

Straight pipes are illegal in the province, under the Nova Scotia Environment Act.

How Canadian...in effect: "Please sign up for this thing that is mandatory."

John Snow must be rolling around in his grave.

FWIW, Victoria and Halifax treat the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, respectively, as open sewers.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:19 PM on September 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

I lived along the LaHave and I am so happy about this.
Ten thousand more Stellas, please.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 6:12 AM on September 13, 2018