Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Jul 17/98) - Workers have started to remove 50 tonnes of asbestos from Inuvik's utilidor system.

And though the project was initially thought to cost the GNWT about $40,000, new regulations upped that initial projected cost 10 times to more than $400,000.

Inuvik Utilities Planning Commission chair George Roach said 858 metres of asbestos will be removed from utilidor lines this year and about 300 metres of the asbestos will be taken out next year.

Disposal is still set to be at a hazardous waste site on the road leading to the airport.

Workers will wear protective body clothing and face masks for the work. Even the water used to clean the safety equipment will be filtered and disposed of carefully to demonstrate the high value governments now place on safety.

This was not always the case.

"I started working with asbestos when I started as an apprentice plumber back in '53," said Red Cheyney, who retired this week from the Power Corporation.

"At that time there were a lot of coal-fired boilers that we were in the process of changing for oil-fired boilers and they were all plastered with an asbestos mud."

Asbestos dust often filled the air he breathed back then, though he said he is in good health today.

"The dangers of it weren't known then," the 62-year-old said.

"Probably in the late '60s there started to be a concern about the handling of asbestos. Before that as far as anybody knew there was no need for precautions."

Cheyney said asbestos currently sitting in utilidor lines is safe.

"Unless the insulation is disturbed or broken in some way there's really not much danger from it because it's kind of like a hard board."

Danger emerges once that board is broken and the insulation transforms into fine potentially cancer-causing dust.

Workers need to remove the asbestos because superheated water will soon not flow through the metal above-ground water and sewage corridors.

A more cost-effective way to heat homes will soon be to use natural gas.