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KINNAIT/CAPE DORSET - A cleanup is underway at the Kingait Inn in Cape Dorset following a public health order to close the hotel on May 6 due to a sewage leak.

The order required the hotel be closed, the area fenced off to prevent human and animal contact with waste, the spilled sewage be properly disposed of and the plumbing repaired, according to a statement released by the Department of Health and Social Services.

The Kingait Inn in Cape Dorset on March 31. The Inn was closed by a public health order on May 6 due to large amounts of sewage leaking out of the building. - contributed photo

Cape Dorset mayor Cary Merritt said sewage has been leaking under the hotel for months.

"My understanding is that it has been going on at least a few months," Merritt said. "When I first started hearing about it, it was early March."

He said water trucks were able to supply the hotel with water, but sewage wasn't being removed because of problems with the lines or the sewage tanks.

"They're filling it with water but there's nothing coming out of the sewage tank when they go to pump the sewage, out so it's just been leaking, I guess," he said.

South Baffin MLA Fred Schell, owner of the hotel, said the day-to-day operations of the hotel are the responsibility a newly-appointed operations manager.

"I really have no comment on it because I don’t look after it anymore," Schell said. "I have somebody looking after it. I still own it, but it is under control. They are doing a cleanup on it."

Cheryl Constantineau, operations manager, said she took over the hotel just over a week ago and has been working on a clean-up plan.

"I only started with the operation as of Friday, May 1," she said. " I have been dealing with the environmental health person here and we're working together to try to find a solution, but I'm not fully updated on it."

Merritt said part of the clean-up plan is to try and bring in salt from Iqaluit to melt the ice under the hotel to fix the problems with the sewage tanks.

"They're bringing in a bunch of melting salt to try to melt down the big block that’s underneath so they could get to the sewage tanks," he said.

Workers have been scraping the frozen waste into piles and using a loader or a dump truck to move the piles to the hamlet's sewage lagoon.

Schell will be responsible for clean-up costs, according to Merritt.