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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - All homeowner Velma Sterenberg wants is to take a warm bath in clean water but she can't.

Sterenberg has had problems with the quality of the water running through her two-tank hot water system over the past four years and she encountered an urgent problem with her electrical tank on Sept. 5.

Velma Sterenberg points to ring of grease buildup around her bathtub. The ring is caused by the quality of water coming into her house. She said she has been unable to get a straight answer about the issue from the plumbing company. - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photo

"The tank had a failure and it flooded my boiler room," she said.

Central Mechanical had installed the hot water tank so she contacted them to come and fix the problem.

"I got on the horn to Central and they said they weren't even able to take an appointment until the 15th of September," she said.

"That meant they wouldn't be able to get to my house for at least a week."

Because it was Friday afternoon, it was impossible for her to get her water fixed and she went the weekend without any hot water, having to shower at friends' houses.

She got temporary hot water hooked up on Sept. 8 but encountered grease in the water when she drew a bath Tuesday evening.

"I contacted Central Mechanical about it and they said there was nothing they could do," she said.

She was able to get J&R Plumbing to look at the problem.

They found the plumbing was not set up the way it was supposed to be, she said.

Central Mechanical installed the tanks in 2004 when Sterenberg had a bathtub put in the basement of the house. Since it was a large house they decided to put in two tanks so no one would be without hot water if they had guests over.

"The two tanks were supposed to run independently of each other but if I had to shut off the electrical tank then I would have to shut off the oil-fired tank too," she said.

"This was also around the time when we started to see grease and a lot of sediment in the water. It wasn't set up how I was told it was going to be and we paid a lot of money to have that done."

Bill Aho, owner of Central Mechanical said he wasn't able to comment directly on the tank issues but said tanks fail because they don't last long up here due to the quality of the water.

"We change tanks under these conditions almost daily," he said.

"It's just the natural water of the North. Some water is soft, some is hard and it just so happens ours is hard and eats away at water tanks."

GSW Inc., the company manufacturing the tanks that Sterenberg uses, said minerals in the water could cause a tank to deteriorate earlier than the six- to 12-year lifespan they give their tanks.