ARVIAT - A leak in one of its reservoir cells could have the hamlet of Arviat facing a water shortage in the coming months.

Bob Leonard: Arviat mayor says Arviat has one of the lowest water consumption rates in Canada.

The water is leaking from cell No. 1, which has a draw-down capacity of 87-million litres.

Cell number two has a capacity of 52 million litres, which could provide the hamlet with water for about 100 days.

Arviat is using water from cell No. 1 now before it all leaks out. Community and Government Services (C&GS) assistant deputy minister Darren Flynn said when the leak was first reported this past December, it was very minor.

He said C&GS continued to monitor the cell and, by January, it was losing up to 1.5 inches of water a day.

"We met with hamlet council on Jan. 26 to discuss its options," said Flynn. "The council and Mayor Bob Leonard have been very supportive and our (C&GS) role on this is to do what we can to help them out.

"They're concerned about this, naturally, but they realize it's going to take a lot of effort and they're committed to making sure people have a safe source of water.

"Neither the hamlet nor C&GS are interested in supplying anything but the best quality of water we can get."

Under current conditions, the hamlet would be out of water by May. Mayor Bob Leonard said the leak could have resulted from work done on a plastic liner this past summer.

He said it's possible Arviat has enough water to get by until refilling begins around June, but the hamlet doesn't want to take a chance on that.

"C&GS are going to bring in the necessary equipment to treat the water and pump it right into the trucks at Landing Lake," said Leonard.

"If a new road is built across the ice, it would be about three kilometres from town, but, the way the road presently runs across the land, it's about seven kilometres."

Some residents have concerns the water from Landing Lake is high in salt content.

Leonard said if the tests sent for analysis look good, water will be trucked from Landing Lake and cell No. 2 will be kept in reserve.

He said if everything goes according to plan, Arviat should be able to access water from Landing Lake in about two weeks.

"Council looked at conservation, but, because Arviat is on trucked water, people are very, very good at conserving water now.

"The water used per person in Arviat is one of the lowest in Nunavut, which puts it among the lowest in Canada.

"To solve the problem through conservation, we'd have to reduce our consumption by about 28 per cent and, with how little water our residents use now, that would be almost impossible."

Leonard said should Landing Lake not work out, testing has begun at another lake a little further out.

He said that lake contains what people in Arviat refer to as sweet water.

"Should neither lake work out, we'd be looking at melting ice or something of that nature and that would get really complicated for us.

"As long as one of the lakes pan out, things should be fine until the damaged cell can be repaired this spring."

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