Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 29/98) - In the North, permafrost is a fact of life. Just ask Robert Sheaves at the hamlet office in Canada's most northern community.

In Grise Fiord, permafrost has been a big challenge to completion of the community's new $280,000 sewage lagoon.

"We scrape and wait for it to thaw. We can only go a few inches a day then we're into the permafrost again. Then we wait for it to thaw," Sheaves, Grise Fiord's assistant to the senior administrative officer, said.

"In the grand scheme of things permafrost is not a major obstacle. You deal with it by living with it."

Building the new lagoon, located adjacent to the old lagoon about 1.5 kilometres north of the hamlet, involves slowly digging down into the frozen ground.

Permafrost makes the going slow but other factors, like weather and availability of equipment, have hindered the project.

The new lagoon is currently in its third season of construction.

The project, originally to be one year, should be done this year and go operational next year.

"It is creating a few jobs in construction," Sheaves said.

Building the lagoon has generated five jobs each summer.

"Permafrost is treated like rock," Uma Group Ltd. cold region specialist Ken Johnson said. Uma designed the lagoon.

The GNWT wanted the project to have a local component which would mean economic benefits for the community, Johnson said.

This created a challenge in terms of equipment available to deal with the permafrost conditions and the short window of opportunity to dig, he said.

The new lagoon is needed as the existing lagoon is no longer able to sustain the growing population. Grise Fiord has about 150 residents.

The new lagoon will service the community for 20 years.

Johnson was among 250 delegates representing 34 countries who gathered last week in Yellowknife for the seventh International Permafrost Conference.