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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A new and improved hydro dam is up and running at Bluefish Lake and has been providing power to Yellowknife, Dettah and Behchoko since earlier this month.

Construction on the Bluefish dam was officially completed on Nov. 14 with a small ceremony at the site, located about 30 km northeast of the city on Bluefish Lake on the Yellowknife River system. Generators at the site are now up to full capacity, generating as much as 6.5 megawatts of power - a much-needed upgrade to the area's aging energy infrastructure, said the chairman of the NWT Power Corporation (NTPC).

"Ultimately, the project ended well, the dam is holding back water and we have a much more robust solution there that will last for the next 100 years," said chairman Brendan Bell.

The $37.4-million project is the most expensive project ever undertaken by the power corporation. While this cost is more than double the initial estimate of $18.9 million, it is money well spent, according to Michael Miltenberger, minister responsible for the power corporation.

"We will continue to enjoy a secure source of power. It is protecting the infrastructure that we have and upgrading it. It will have a long, long life," he said. "The price of diesel fuel is only going to continue to rise and the water that's (in Bluefish Lake) and the system that's there is going to continue to flow, so we've made a good investment," Miltenberger said.

The power corporation recognizes its initial cost estimates for the project were inadequate, said Bell. This mistake was partly due to the urgency provided by the fact that the old dam was in danger of collapsing, he said. Also, some additional costs were added later in the project, such as $8.8 million to address concerns about the size of the spillway.

"The concerns were that our spillway as designed wouldn't be adequate if over the next 100 years water levels significantly rise on that lake due to global warming or due to any other factors. We needed to design a spillway that was larger and would have more capacity," said Bell.

Under average conditions, Bluefish hydro is capable of providing as much as 20 per cent of Yellowknife's annual electrical needs, which would otherwise require roughly 11 million litres of diesel every year, the power corporation stated in a news release last week.

The original Bluefish hydro dam was built by Nerco Con Mines beginning in 1940 and first came online in 1942. It was built out of timber rock-filled cribs, which started to deteriorate over time. Originally expected to last about 40 years, the dam was upgraded in 1973 and 1983 by the mining company and again in 2007 after the NWT Power Corporation purchased Bluefish from Miramar Con Mine for $12 million in 2003.

The new dam is located 400 metres downstream from the original hydro facility and is three times longer than its predecessor at 270 metres. Constructing the dam required 21,000 cubic metres of crushed rock material and about 1,400 cubic metres of cement. Also, the new spillway was created by excavating 75,000 cubic metres of rock.

The power corporation will look at adding or upgrading generators at the site over the next several years, which could lead to more power generation, said Bell.

Earlier this month, the water level of Bluefish Lake was increased by five feet as NTPC filled its reservoir. The reservoir is now at maximum levels, but snowmobilers are advised to be wary of thin ice on the lake throughout the winter, said Bell.

"In the future, I understand that this will actually be safer than the old situation on Bluefish Lake where water levels were moving and fluctuating more. This will happen less with the new dam, but this year it's a danger, so we would like people to stay away from there with snowmobiles," he said.

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