Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 27/02) - Some residents are puzzled and a bit angry that they can't get solid information on a crucial question: are their homes on safe ground?

Estimates vary widely, but as many as 52 households could be located inside an area that according to the territorial health department is unfit for housing.

Under the GNWT's sanitation guidelines, no habitable building should be constructed within 450 metres of a waste disposal zone. But a number of houses on Ptarmigan Drive and Sissons Court are less than 450 metres away from Pud Lake, the principal tailings pond for Con Mine.

"We want to know if it's safe because there's a whole bunch of people who live inside that 450-metre zone," said Brian Wainwright, a resident of Ptarmigan Drive.

The NWT's chief medical officer, Dr. Andre Corriveau, told city council there is no safety hazard.

He said setback zones vary across the country and are anywhere from 150 metres to 1.5 kilometres.

Corriveau's senior environmental health officer, Craig Nowakowski, said there is no danger, "Unless you're going right up to the tailings pond. But where (residents of Ptarmigan Drive and Sissons Court) are living shouldn't be concerned."

Fuzzy data, fuzzy lines

But residents are concerned because they can't find any hard data.

For instance, there is no definitive line on a map indicating where the setback zone should run.

The health department said only two or three houses are inside the setback zone.

Coun. Dave McCann, another resident of Ptarmigan Drive, has created a computerized map using aerial photos from the past three decades.

He says 52 households are within the setback area. Wainwright sketched a line with a compass on a map and estimated 200 households are potentially in danger.

Making matters worse, the health department has no records of any soil sampling done around Pud Lake despite the fact that the department has issued two exemptions to the setback.

Both were issued in 1996. One exemption was for Ecole Allain St. Cyr and another for an undeveloped property behind Ptarmigan Drive.

Nowakowski, who wasn't here when the exemptions were given, said sampling is not needed. Instead, inspectors look over the site and decide based on what they see and the discussions they have with the parties involved.

Environment Canada has soil sample records that show a great range of arsenic concentration: from five parts per million (in the playground at the intersection of Ptarmigan and Forrest drives) to 850 near Taylor Road.

However, 11 sample sites at the north tip of Pud Lake yielded an average of 234 parts per million of arsenic. That's almost 20 times the recommended maximum arsenic concentration in soil.

Samples for other heavy metals -- including copper, lead and zinc -- were on average well below soil quality guidelines.

Residents want written documentation from health and social services telling them they have nothing to worry about. They're also thinking about property values.

"I don't want to cry wolf but it certainly could have an impact," said McCann, who would like the health department to look into exemptions for those properties inside the setback zone.