Grise Fiord (Aug 14/06) - People throughout North America could one day pay a lot of money to sip melt water from the Northern-most community in the Arctic.

At least that's the plan the Hamlet of Grise Fiord is set to investigate.

"We have excellent water, with a potential to market," said Grise Fiord senior administrative officer, Will Ferguson.

The Hamlet uses melt water to fill its 1.5 million-litre tanks, but there is a tremendous excess of water that runs off, said Ferguson.

"We have about 100 days of run-off melt water, but we fill our tank in about 10 days," he said.

After receiving a $35,000 Nunavut community initiatives grant, the hamlet hired Arctic Invest, a business consulting group from Milton, Ont., to address the feasibility of the project, said Ferguson.

While the original plan to ship bottled water out of the community may not be a viable option, there are other proposals still afloat, said Ferguson.

"We need to look at the water quality, figure out how to get it south and find an interested bottler," said Wilson.

The most efficient means of shipping could be by using a large rubber polyethylene, "medusa bag," which could be filled with Grise Fiord water and transported by barge, said Ferguson.

Before a supplier can be found, water quality must be analyzed, said Ferguson.

An engineer specializing in water quality will be in Grise Fiord in the coming weeks to study what the community's got.

"It's a long-term project, but there are potential jobs," said Ferguson.

The idea of selling Grise Fiord's extra water to the south sits well with community economic development officer Jimmie Qaapik.

"Oh yeah, it can work, if it is done in a serious manner," said Qaapik.

"It can provide very sustainable jobs for a couple of people in town."

Qaapik said the key for jobs in the North is to get a quality contractor- one that's serious about transporting a large amount of water to the south.

If the engineer does put his stamp of approval on the water, the next step will be to find a potential distributor, said Ferguson.