Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Aug 07/98) - Dozens of home owners came to a public information meeting equipped with questions about the safety and economics of using natural gas from the proposed Ikhil pipeline set for construction this winter.

"What happens if there's a gas leak?" asked resident Michael Fabijan, who looks forward to using natural gas despite his concerns.

"If the gas (pipeline) breaks and everything freezes, we couldn't stay here. We'd have to leave," he said July 30 at the meeting in the Inuvialuit Corporate Centre lobby.

Project manager Jim McDougall responded that back-up storage tanks with compressed and liquified natural gas would cost too much to be viable.

He then attempted to soothe fears by referring to a natural gas pipeline in Alaska which has heated a town without a leak since the 1950s.

Though this project is set to heat Inuvik for the next 20 years, residents will not be left in the lurch once that time period expires.

Other natural gas sources abound in this area, McDougall told residents.

The $30 million project will use some southern labor but could generate about 60 construction jobs for area residents once the ground freezes and construction begins -- likely in October.

McDougall said he expects natural gas to flow into Inuvik by June but the target date for home owners to be able to have it run to their homes is Sept. 1, 1999.

For reasons of cost and safety natural gas will not run in the utilidor lines, but will instead flow up the centre lines of streets.

Lines going to houses will contain electronic sensors so officials can pinpoint locations should a home owner set out to do renovations that involve chewing up the yard.

"We realize we have to compete with fuel oil," McDougall said.

"We know that you look at this as an investment just as we do."

As such, McDougall expects residents to save money by switching to natural gas even though it would mean buying a new furnace as well as other appliances such as a stove or dryer.

Fuel bills may not decrease immediately, however, McDougall warned.

McDougall said he expects natural gas to be quieter than other forms of energy.

The pipeline proposal still needs the approval of the National Energy Board, but passage appears to be a formality.