Brodie Thomas
Northern News Services
Published Monday, January 21, 2008

COLVILLE LAKE - Charles Gully is tired of hauling water to his Colville Lake home - a task he says takes him an entire day if he wants a week's worth on hand.

"It's cold on the hands and feet," says Gully.

Luckily Gully and other Colville Lake residents will soon have the choice not to collect their water from the lake as the NWT Power Corp. (NTPC) is preparing to run power lines to the community's long-delayed water treatment plant.

The power should be on sometime early this week according to Wayne LeBlanc, NTPC's line co-ordinator.

The main stumbling block preventing power from getting to the facility was the decision on the exact route of the power line, says LeBlanc.

Originally plans called for 20 or more poles along the road to the facility. It would have meant running the poles through a swampy area and around a cluster of trees.

LeBlanc says the Behdzi Ahda' First Nation was unhappy with that proposal because they knew the ground would become unstable in the summer months, and it might cause the poles to lean.

The project was revised and the line will now follow the shore, where the First Nation plans to eventually build more houses.

"We're killing two birds with one stone," says LeBlanc, watching a bulldozer clearing the new route to the facility.

The community will be happy because the power will be waiting when the houses are ready to be built, he says.

As an added bonus the new route is also more efficient - it will only take five or six poles.

Leblanc says he arrived in Colville Lake shortly after the winter road opened to light traffic.

"I always go to the band to ask them about their problems and concerns," he says.

As soon as they met and discussed the possibility of an alternate route, Behdzi Ahda' First Nation coun. approved the new plan.

The facility has been in the works for several years but inherent design flaws have prevented its use to this point. When it was constructed it was intended to be powered by a bank of batteries powered by a solar collection system.

Residents complained low light conditions related to Colville Lake's location - roughly 50 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle - would mean the green power system would rely too heavily on an emergency backup generator not capable of providing constant power to the site.

With the power problem now all but solved, Gully says he'll be taking advantage of water deliveries once they begin.

"It'll be nice to see the work finished," says Gully. "The water plant should really help out."