Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (May 08/01) - The federal government will be rebuilding its Old Town dock this summer, but not with the material originally supplied for the job.

The Department of Public Works and Government Services, which is overseeing reconstruction of the dock, is currently trying to secure a recycled plastic material to replace a load of pressure-treated wood delivered for construction of the dock on Yellowknife Bay.

Pressure treated lumber is saturated with a preservative containing toxic concentrations of arsenic and copper. According to Health Canada, the preservative will leach out when the wood is kept in contact with water.

The copper and arsenic would be a drop in the ocean next to the contaminants that were dumped into the bay during the early years of gold mining here, but the director of environmental protection division of the territorial government decided it was better to err on the side of caution.

"We suggested that as a precautionary approach that this pressure treated wood should not be used in that application, simply because it is in contact with fresh water," said Emery Paquin, director of environmental protection for the territorial government.

"You want to limit people's exposure to arsenic to whatever extent possible. This would be a new source of arsenic. A precautionary approach would be to look for alternatives."

It was former biologist and local prospector Penelope Shaw, who lives in a houseboat near the dock, who alerted officials to the problem of using that kind of lumber for such a facility.

Hovat Construction won the $200,000 Public Works tender to build the Department of Fisheries and Oceans dock.

In the tender, the federal public works department specified pressure treated lumber be used for the dock. Hovat's Eric Sputek said the lumber is worth about $20,000.

DFO Area director Ron Allen said the switch in materials will cause no significant delay to completion of the dock. Construction must wait until the ice has melted. There is still more than a metre of ice on the bay.

Sputek learned of the decision to switch materials from the Yellowknifer. Shaw said she was "delighted" to hear DFO had ordered the change.

Health Canada is re-examining the health risks associated with pressure treated wood, commonly used in construction of decks and playground equipment.

Though Health Canada has not ordered that such applications be dismantled, it does advise that people working with pressure treated wood wear gloves and long sleeves when handling it.

It recommends hands that come into contact with the wood be washed before eating, drinking or smoking and that clothes worn while working with such material be washed before being worn again.

Both U.S. and Canadian regulators have asked construction companies to voluntarily stop using lumber for such things as playground equipment and decks.

A spokesperson for Public Works and Government Services said no decision has been made on what will be done with the pressure treated lumber.