YELLOWKNIFE - "Strange" water flows have forced Giant Mine clean-up crews to dig out Baker Creek to relieve pressure and prevent an ice jam on the roadside stream.

Bill Mitchell, federal clean-up manager for the mine site, said the problem began Jan. 19 when water flow went from less than 1,000 gallons a minute to more than 4,000 gallons a minute in just a few days.

Water levels are usually at a minimum in January.

"Oh yes, a very strange time," said Mitchell.

"I checked the hydrographs for Cameron River and various other things and they're generally showing a decrease in flows through January and that's normally what we've seen in Baker Creek.

"But this year it was different for some reason. Maybe some beaver dams up there let go, who knows?"

Another possible explanation offered by Mitchell is the heavy snowfall from last month combined with the poor freezing ability of peaty water in the lakes at the head of the creek conspired to create more than a usual amount of overflow.

"It just depressed the ice enough, and there was probably melting going on at the bottom of the ice, and that started squirting the water out," said Mitchell.

To combat the overflow, a backhoe was used to dig a trench through ice on the creek to ease its passage through the mine site to its mouth at Back Bay.

Last fall, Giant Mine clean-up crews re-routed a 400-metre portion of the creek because it was leaking into underground workings where large amounts of toxic arsenic trioxide is stored.

Mitchell said the latest problems with the creek did not pose a danger to either the arsenic chambers or the stability of the Ingraham Trail which runs alongside the stream.

"We just went in there to dig a channel and make sure the flow keeps going down the middle rather than out towards the highway," said Mitchell.