Yellowknife (Sep 20/06) - Residents can rest assured that Baker Creek is no longer at risk of collapsing into Giant Mine's underground workings, according to the federal official in charge of cleaning up the defunct mine site.

Bill Mitchell, the Giant Mine clean-up co-ordinator for Indian Affairs and Northern Development, said work undertaken this summer to divert the creek, which runs through the mine area into Back Bay, is nearly complete and the danger of collapse appears to have been averted.

Last July, Mitchell warned that "quite large releases of arsenic" from storage chambers underground could wind up in Yellowknife Bay should the creek bed give way and pour directly into the mine.

He also said that, "It would be a real disaster because we probably couldn't keep the mine pumped out," referring to underground pumps used to divert water from the creek back to the surface.

Five sinkholes - including one 30-metres deep - have formed near a mining pit over the last three years due to creek leakage underground.

"I may have overstated it at that point. There wasn't a disaster brewing," said Mitchell.

"It was a concern we had, and we had to deal with it."

To correct the problem, a 400-metre stretch of creek is being diverted through a new channel away from the sinkholes and an underground chamber where 17,000 tonnes of toxic arsenic trioxide is stored.

"Once we get that installed, we can route the water through the new channel and that should be well under way by the end of September," said Mitchell.

"We're actually ahead of schedule. It worked out quite well in this one."

Mitchell added that the pumping system underground is also being upgraded so it can handle increased flow. The price tag for the project is between $1 million and $1.5 million.

Mitchell said his team has received support from his department, the territorial government and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to complete the work this year.

The next step is to present the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board with a remediation plan, which Mitchell expects to happen sometime next year.