Sanikiluaq water undrinkable
$400,000 fix sees 250 reverse osmosis units installed in community
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Monday, July 4, 2016
SANIKILUAQ
It's going to cost several hundred thousand dollars but the Government of Nunavut is stepping in fast to help Sanikiluaq residents unable to drink their own tap water.
High levels of sodium were detected in the community's drinking water June 23, prompting the Department of Health to issue a warning for residents not to drink the tap water.
By 1 p.m. June 24, a plane loaded with bottled water sent by the Department of Community and Government Services landed in Sanikiluaq.
"As of Sunday (June 26) we've flown in six plane loads of bottled water," said Darren Flynn, assistant deputy minister of Community and Government Services, on June 28.
"We currently have enough on hand to last until the end of the week. We're assessing (the situation) and we'll decide if we need to fly more in."
People have also been gathering water from spring sources on the hills outside of town, he said. The community has traditionally had poor-tasting water.
The test that found sodium in the tap water is a chemical analysis every community is required to do every two years, although Sanikiluaq has been doing it annually because of the status of its water quality.
"We recently got the results last week and we know that there was a high amount of sodium, still basically borderline for safe drinking - it was just barely under - but at the same time it did pose a risk to people who are prone to sodium, people with hypertension and people who may have some kidney issues," said Flynn.
After the bottled water, the department is sending 250 reverse osmosis units by charter. They were planned to arrive before Canada Day. A contractor in town would then take approximately 10 days to install the devices, which will go into all public housing units, staff housing units and private residential homes.
The reverse osmosis devices are installed underneath the sink and use a five-stage filtering system to cleanse tap water of sodium and any other impurities.
"The reverse osmosis units are an intermediate measure," said Flynn.
This summer, the government is building a storage tank at the water processing facility in Sanikiluaq, which would allow a longer contact time with chlorine to clean the water.
"We're also going to investigate if there is some way for us to reduce the sodium at the primary source of treatment," said Flynn. "Long-term solution, we're going to try to find something that works right at the primary source. I don't really have a time frame on what that will be or what that would take, but it's something that we do have to do."
Last week it was not clear how sodium contaminated the water in the first place. Being that Sanikiluaq is an island in the Hudson Bay, Flynn speculated it would not be a stretch to imagine salt from the air ending up in the water.
Between the multiple chartered flights, bottled water, reverse osmosis units and installation costs, Flynn said remedying the situation would likely cost the government in the range of $400,000 when all is said and done.
"We're not concerning ourselves with that right now," he said. "The bills will come in, they'll get paid, but our only concern right now is making sure that we provide a safe source of drinking water for a municipality."
On June 30, the Department of Health issued another reminder to residents not to drink the community's tap water, but said it is still safe for cooking, bathing and hand washing. However, it is not safe to boil for drinking because the boiling process raises the sodium level in water.
