Kirsten Murphy
Northern News Services

Qikiqtarjuaq (July 30/01) - Public opposition has delayed the cleaning of Qikiqtarjuaq's Distant Early Warning Line site by at least a year.

Residents fear a small but valuable lake is at risk if two of three landfill sites are built. The lake is the island's reserve water supply should its 50-year-old reservoir fail.

Walls and radar equipment tainted with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) will go into the landfills -- along with other non-hazardous wastes. The materials will be wrapped in plastic and stored in sealift containers.

"We know our community and know our land. After the 50-year existence of DEW Line sites here, we know the dangers of contaminants," said Mayor Lootie Toomasie.

Opposition was raised during a public meeting in Qikiqtarjuaq July 24. Defence Construction Canada, a branch of the Department of National Defence overseeing the cleanup, met with 20 concerned citizens.

The project was expected to begin next month. Without the hamlet's support, however, remediation has been delayed until next summer.

Twenty-one DEW Line sites, 15 in Nunavut and six in the NWT, are slated for demolition over the next seven years. Cambridge Bay and Cape Hooper on Baffin Island are the only completely clean sites in Nunavut so far.

Toomasie suggested building the landfills some five kilometres from the site proposed by Defence Construction.

Officials said fuel and labour costs will exceed the $13 million earmarked for demolishing and cleaning the Qikiqtarjuaq site. The estimated cost of remediating all 21 sites is $275 million.

The U.S. government, which built the line in the 1950s, committed only $100 million to the project.

The North Warning System replaces the DEW Line.

Wayne Ingham, soil remediation specialist with the Environmental Sciences Group, surveyed the lake from a distance after the meeting. He said finding alternative landfill locations is one option. Staying with the original site -- some 10 kilometres from the community -- is another.

"The debris going in (the landfill) is not hazardous debris. From a technical perspective, the concerns about leachate are a non-issue. It's a concern that has to be addressed," Ingham said.

Cleanup manager Pete Quinn called the last-minute opposition a setback but remained hopeful. "We want to work co-operatively with NTI to find a resolution and keep the momentum and get the clean up happening."

NTI and DND signed a cleanup co-operation agreement in 1998. The economic aspect of that agreement is still being negotiated.

Defence Construction representatives, Qikiqtarjuaq hamlet officials and NTI are scheduled to resume talks next month.

Critics like Toomasie clearly want the cleanup. But not at the risk of contaminants leaking into the lake, he said.