Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services

Coppermine (Sep 30/02) - Kugluktuk was dangerously close to running out of drinking water last week when high winds resulted in salt water contamination in the Coppermine River.

Residents were told to reduce water consumption at the beginning of the week, but the restriction was lifted by Wednesday afternoon.

Acting senior administrative officer Alex Buchan said the salt water intrusion problem has been a recurring headache for the hamlet for more than two weeks now.

"So there is a limit to the time that we can draw water, and on top of it all we've had some pump failures out at the water intake. Even when we could draw water the equipment has failed," he said.

Another hurdle in obtaining fresh water were malfunctions at the water treatment plant, where some of the pipes have loosened.

"So with those three things working together ... we've had a very difficult time getting water in the community and we've come really close to running completely dry with our holding tanks," said Buchan.

But the hamlet has managed to maintain water service as employees worked through the night of Sept. 24, pumping 40,000 litres of water into the reserve tanks.

Buchan said the community and hamlet council are frustrated with problems caused by the new facility, which has only been in operation for a few months.

The plant was built last winter.

"They have a lot of kinks to work out on it," said Buchan. The Department of Public Works is scheduled to conduct a final inspection on the facility next week.

Under the new system, water is pumped from the Coppermine River through a series of paper filters.

Buchan said it's taken a lot of work to get the system to work properly.

It was working effectively for a short time until the pipes began to fail.

"It's not an optimum situation," said Buchan.

Several councillors indicated during a meeting last week that work conducted to improve water quality thus far has been a "band-aid solution."

"Aside from the mechanical difficulties, the salt intrusion, in the opinion of our council, is a major issue," he said.

The ultimate solution, said Buchan, is to move the intake to a location where salt water will not interfere with the hamlet's ability to draw water.

The water treatment plant is a joint project between the Department of Public Works and Community Government and Transportation. John Walsh, deputy minister of CG&T, assures engineers are working to find an "acceptable solution."

"I do not know whether moving the intake is part of it, but there are still design and construction issues to work through and we're doing that with Public Works and the design engineers on the project," said Walsh.