Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Tuktoyaktuk (Apr 01/02) - A project to plug a leak in the community water source is expected to go ahead this week, but a federal biologist says the rock weir is only a temporary solution to dropping lake levels.

"It's only a Band-Aid measure," said Pete Cott, with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, after he inspected the site Thursday. "A plan has to be developed to get an alternate lake. They're just going to have more problems in the future with further breaches, and right now the lake isn't holding a lot of water."

Water levels at Kugluk Lake have been dropping since 1998, when a sudden spring thaw caused the lake to breach its shore. A creek formed between the lake and the harbour, and water has been draining out to the sea ever since.

The hamlet pumps water from the lake to its reservoir each fall, and during the pump-out last year, the water levels were so low the hamlet worried there wouldn't be enough water to fill the reservoir again.

The hamlet had been trying to get the territorial government to foot the bill for a new pumping station at a different lake, but the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has said a rock weir will be enough to allow Kugluk Lake to fill up again with snow melt.

"The weir will work so it can continue to be the water source," MACA superintendent Dan Carmichael told News/North last fall. "We haven't looked at relocating at this time."