Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Nov 21/01) - The sewage system in Rankin Inlet will be reviewed to see if it meets the standards of the Nunavut Water Board.

The current system doesn't treat the sewage to the standards of the Water Board, putting the hamlet in violation of its water licence.

Municipal planning engineer Donald Forsyth says the current system is above the acceptable guidelines for the amount of organic matter in the sewage.

As a result, a two-year monitoring study has already been launched.

"Extensive monitoring is needed to compile the information we require to produce a proper design," says Forsyth.

"We need extensive knowledge of the constituents of the sewage, the amount of flow and the variation of that flow both during the day and the year. We are substantially above acceptable guidelines," he says.

"To get the system to where we want it, we're looking at about $2-million."

The treatment plant was put in place in 1996 and uses a rotating drum screen to screen lumps out of the sewage.

That was thought to be able to meet water board requirements.

However, as design and construction of the treatment plant progressed, water losses were also being reduced in the system, making the sewage more dilute.

"We actually shot ourselves in the foot when we tightened up all that bleeding because the concentration of organics in the sewage climbed as we were wasting less water.

"So, basically, that's why our present system is no longer sufficient."

Forsyth says the current system is not harming the environment the way it might in a Southern environment by causing an excess of growths in the water.

"Because there's almost no organics in the water to start with, the system is not adversely affecting the water," he says.

"The water board's criteria, however, is not based on the effect on the water. There's a certain concentration of organics which is permissable and that's the standard we have to meet."