Broughton Island (Feb 13/06) - An estimated 1,000 litres of fuel leaked from the hamlet of Qikiqtarjuaq's main diesel storage tank sometime before Jan. 23.

The problem is, the leaked fuel saturated the soil around and beneath the hamlet building and has been giving off odours ever since.

And until last week, senior administrative officer Mike Richards was unsure how to address the problem, considering the property is not the responsibility of the territorial government.

On Jan. 24, Richards reported the spill to many people he said weren't able to help. He called the Environmental Protection Office, the fire marshall and reported the situation to the fuel spill line.

"They've all kind of walked away, saying 'you deal with it.' That's the impression we're getting," he said Feb. 7.

"We don't have anything to test the air quality except our noses. This is a serious situation we are trying to resolve and there are no quick answers to it. It's like walking around with handcuffs on."

He then called the insurance company and a private environmental assessment company, and was waiting for them to give him advice when Community and Government Services minister Levinia Brown stepped in.

"They jumped right in and said 'let's get the problem fixed and deal with who's going to pay for it later,'" said Richards.

Brown just happened to be in town that day on a separate matter.

"They realized this was a serious situation that needs to be addressed," said Richards.

He said a group from CGS were planning to fly to the hamlet as soon as possible, but Nunavut News/North was unable to reach the department for details.

Richards said there would be no way the hamlet could pay for the clean-up on its own.

However, the fuel isn't likely going anywhere soon, it's frozen there.

"Even if we were able to expose it, we couldn't remove the soil because it's the building's foundation."

The tank was installed around 1976, so it wasn't a big surprise when the hamlet foreman and the maintainer found it to be the source of the strong diesel odour.

Since finding the problem, there have been no more leaks.

"The maintainer sucked everything out from the main tanks and put it into the back-up tanks," said Richards.

"I don't find (the smell) that aggressive, but people do walk in and say they smell diesel."

Richards said he asked all staff whether the smell was annoying, and one said it was.

"She never said to me that it was so bad that she couldn't work here." He added "If staff said they were sensitive to it, we would have removed them from it. No person can be forced to work in an environment that they don't deem safe."

The six hamlet staff members continued to go to work until Feb. 8, when temperatures warmed and the smell got worse.

"I sent people home early yesterday because the fumes were so bad," said Richards Feb. 9. "The warm weather seems to be drawing it out."

Temperatures increased to -25C from -32C that day.