Inuvik (Dec 22/03) - Water was never such a fascinating subject as it was when talking to Greg Stromgren.

Stromgren is the utilidor supervisor for the Town of Inuvik. For the past three years he's been the one responsible for keeping the water coming in and the sewage going out of all Inuvik homes.

It might sound like a dirty and often wet job, but Stromgren, a plumber and gas fitter by trade, loves to do it. Mention the word water and his eyes light up.

"This is one of the few places in the world where there are above-ground utilities," he said, adding the unique system is what attracted him to the job.

Inuvik is also one of the few places in Canada with two water sources -- Hidden Lake from May to November, and the Mackenzie River East Channel from November to May.

Stromgren said all the water is of a good quality, but the winter river water is the best.

No one thinks about how much works goes into treating and keeping the water safe when they turn on the tap, said Stromgren.

At this time of year, the water is pumped from the East Channel into the treatment plant.

There it is heated to 10 C by residual heat from the NWT Power Corporation generators next door, filtered through rapid sand filters, disinfected with chlorine gas, enhanced with fluoride and pumped to the reservoir above town. The water constantly flows through the 17 km of utilidor piping, mostly by gravity feed.

Stromgren and his crew are responsible for keeping the system working, but they're also responsible for keeping it safe.

Stromgren takes bacteria testing seriously. Besides computer monitoring and daily equipment checks, the treatment plant is spotless. Water samples are taken for bacteriological testing at the Inuvik Regional Hospital once a week.

"We go to great lengths to ensure we never have that problem," said Stromgren, of bacteria contamination. It wouldn't take much to make a town like Inuvik sick."