Tuktoyaktuk (Apr 21/03) - Mayor Eddie Dillon is confident the hamlet will be victorious in its battle with the sea.

Tuktoyaktuk has slowly but steadily been sinking into the ocean since the 1930s when it became a permanent settlement.

Last April two studies conducted by the Geological Survey of Canada and EBA Engineering Consultants were submitted to the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.

The studies revealed the hamlet could expect to lose 15 buildings that could fall into the sea on the western side of the peninsula over the next 25 years.

For the past several years, the hamlet has been dragging in loads and loads of rip-rap to build up the sea wall, hoping to save the buildings from being lost forever.

Those buildings in the danger zone include two private residences, several buildings and houses owned by the Tuktoyaktuk Housing Association, and the Adult Learning Centre.

The hamlet's cemetery is only slightly beyond the 25-year erosion line.

This year the hamlet went all out to purchase 10 times the amount of rock and gravel they normally bring in. Many of the large boulders are the size of a car.

"We have got 5,000 cubic metres of rock hauled from the Inuvik quarry and we have also got 22,000 cubic metres of gravel," he said.

Last year, Dillon said the hamlet brought in only 1,000 cubic metres of rock.

There is a heavier load this year because they secured some additional funds, and spent almost $400,000 on rocks and gravel.

"You would be amazed at the amount of dirt that has been moved.

"Hopefully that will make us feel secure for another five or 10 years, we hope, in terms of the erosion," said Dillon.

The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has informed the hamlet that funding provided to them this year for building up the sea wall is all they will get for a few years, according to Dillon. He said that's because the operating and maintenance budgets have been combined.

But since the hamlet has purchased as much rip-rap this year as the last four years combined, Dillon is optimistic about saving those buildings along the shoreline.

"I think we have slowed the erosion quite a bit ... and I think we are going to do pretty good in terms of just protecting the assets and infrastructure that are at risk," he said.

Now the hamlet has another task ahead of it -- figuring out a way to help residents get across the sandspit in the spring.

Every year a natural snow drift forms along the point that residents use as a bridge. But large rocks now piled on the shoreline will make that virtually impossible.

"We will have to build a snow bridge somehow because it's normally our natural bridge in June because the point gets too rocky too quick," said Dillon.

The hamlet foreman is working on a solution to that problem, he added.