Sewer work tops list
New funding will see entire line finished in 2017; second water reserve tank to be built
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Thursday, September 15, 2016
INUVIK
Newly announced funding from the federal government and Government of the Northwest Territories will help Inuvik finish its new sewer outfall line by the end of next year.
"It will be our major project," said Inuvik SAO Grant Hood.
The $10 million in funding will extend the sewer line from Franklin Road to the sewage lagoon.
Currently, previous funding is going toward the replacement of the utilidor system and pump houses up until Franklin, which is to be completed by the end of this year.
"We looked at doing it over two years or maybe even three years but there are a lot of other conditions that come into play if we have to do it over more than one year," said Hood.
The total sewer outfall project will clock in at around $15 million.
Seventy-five per cent of the funding is coming from higher levels of government, while the town is picking up 25 per cent, mostly taken from money Inuvik gets for capital projects and revenue from its water and sewer rates.
Hood said there may be a potential for an increase in those rates, but he can't say because the town's next budget hasn't been put together yet.
"Overall the town has made significant inroads in providing better water for the town and secured wastewater," he said.
The town is just finishing its water treatment plant, a $19-million project, which is currently scheduled to go online in late October.
Hood called the sewer system a critical piece of infrastructure that needs replacement. He estimated it costs the town $50,000 to $60,000 per year in maintenance. Historically, the town has performed about $2 million of utilidor replacement each year.
"We will replace that whole line, and from that it gives us some significant security as far as the operations of the sewer," said Hood.
Work on the new section will begin and end next year.
The town also received $2 million to build a second water reserve tank, which acts as the town's reserve in case of fires.
Hood said the town had put out a tender to repair the current tank and it came back much higher than expected, so the town put that idea on hold.
"What we're going to do now with this funding is build a second tank up there, and then once it's built and running we can take the old one offline and fix it up properly," said Hood.
That will be a two-year project.
The town had also applied for funding to put a redundant water line coming down from the tank but did not receive funding for that project in the latest announcement.
"It's not a must have, it's a nice to have sort of thing," said Hood.
He estimated the cost of that project to be $5 million.
"Once the water treatment plant's up and running, I believe it would be able to handle the water requirements for the town," said Hood.
"I think the water plant would be able to keep the system going but it would be very difficult should there be a fire."
