Costly fixes for water problems
Boil water advisory over but hamlet has to make up financial hit
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Monday, July 27, 2015
IGLULIK
Water delivery is returning to normal in Iglulik, but now the hamlet has to make up the financial hit.
Hamlet residents no longer have to worry about the safety of their water in Iglulik. Tests have come back clean and the boil water advisory has been lifted. The above picture shows a fluke that got sucked up by the hamlet's water truck, not equipped with a filter, and deposited into the water system last month. - photo courtesy of Priscilla Stacey |
"We basically ran out of water," said Michael Rowan, acting senior administrative officer, summarizing the series of events.
"We did two rounds of testing as required, and the laboratory we worked through came back with clear results for both testing."
The low water level in the hamlet's reservoir in early summer forced the community to turn to its backup lake, which had its own problem - sour-smelling water.
Brian Flemming, senior administrative officer at the time, said it smelled like ammonia.
In turn, the hamlet had to seek out another lake farther from the community to supply water, choosing Fish Lake.
Trucks delivered water at first and then the hamlet and Government of Nunavut laid out a long pipe from the lake to the community to speed up the process.
Those water trucks came with their own problems, notably sucking up organisms known as flukes into the water supply because the hose had no filter on it.
A boil water advisory, which was enacted because the hamlet did not know the status of the water in Fish Lake, ended recently in the community after more than a month in effect and things are turning back to normal.
To Rowan's knowledge, it was the longest boil water advisory Iglulik has faced.
"We weren't absolutely positive (the Fish Lake water) was potable water," said Rowan. "To all of our reasoning it should have been and it was, but treatments had to be looked at for a number of possible problems."
At the time, Flemming said he was not sure what the expense to the hamlet would be.
"We're just trying to get the community re-supplied with water," he told Nunavut News/North during the crisis. "We'll worry about bills later."
The cost to the hamlet for the water problems is on the scale of $80,000, all things considered, Rowan said.
"It wasn't good for our water fund financially," said Rowan.
"The cost can be recovered this year, as we're mandated to do by the Hamlet Act, but it wasn't cheap."
He said the water fund took about a $40,000 hit and expenses were of a similar order.
"I would say between lost revenue and expenses we're looking at an approximately $80,000 difference from what we originally planned on for that fund."
The hamlet is required not to have a deficit. Rowan said the hamlet will have to accommodate that expense and has 12 months to even it out.
"If you're looking at a long-term effect, it will affect how much money we can set aside for replacing water trucks and that kind of thing, because those are fairly big ticket items," he said.
