New water plant welcomed
Cambridge Bay gets top-notch treatment, 17 fire hydrants
Beth Brown
Northern News Services
Monday, October 17, 2016
IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY
Cambridge Bay's new water treatment plant is almost done. But already residents are getting the benefits of the new system.
"We're drawing water from there now," said Marla Limousin, the hamlet's senior administrative officer. "We had all the bacteria results in late last week."
The Government of Nunavut will hand over control of the facility - which includes a new water intake system, pump house and treatment centre - once it is in full operation.
Limousin said the new location will be more convenient, as the old pump house was right in the middle of town, and having the trucks fill up would often cause congestion. She said in the winter, the water runoff made the main intersection near the school, bank and post office very icy.
The installation hasn't been without hiccups. Community Facebook posts from the last few weeks have shown residents running out of water and waiting for trucks to arrive.
"It will get better," Limousin said. "What happened was they had to shut off the line for our normal pump station in order to bring the new pump station on. For that period of time our trucks were pumping right from the water lake."
She said this added 20 minutes to every trip.
"The guys were backed up, going until 11 or 12 every night."
The project has also introduced 17 new fire hydrants into the core of the community. Training is now being organized for hydrant operation.
Stantec Inc. designed the plant. The company's senior engineer Walter Orr said the project is more complex than the typical water treatment plant or pump house for the North, as Cambridge Bay is one of the few communities in the territory with a below-ground waterline.
The new system introduces a filtration system and an ultraviolet disinfectant process - to kill microorganisms - in addition to a traditional chlorine disinfectant to keep bacteria from growing in the water when it is transferred into residential tanks.
The new treatment process brings hamlet drinking water up to Canadian regulatory standards.
"Historically across the North, most water systems for communities intake out of a clean lake and provide chlorine for disinfection and that's all the treatment that happened," he said.
He said in the past, exemptions were in place for regions where there was a low population and no industry or source of agricultural pollution.
The guidelines have since been changed to require filtration, and systems in the North are moving to meet this requirement.
Orr said that while existing water used by the community was safe, the modern system will increase the quality of the water and the consistency of cleanliness year-round.
"Before this plant was built, the water would not have met the Canadian Drinking Water Guidelines at certain times of the year," usually around the ice thaw. He noted, though, not meeting guidelines "is not the same as unsafe."
The Canadian High Arctic Research Station, opening next summer, will have pressurized water running from the main lines. Otherwise no additional water lines have been added, though this will be an option for future renovations or development.
"The existing line, while there was repairs and upgrades, will still provide water to the same buildings throughout town," said Matt Follett, a Stantec engineer who provided site services in Cambridge Bay.
He said loose ends for the project should be tied up by the end of the month.
Residential water service will still be delivered by trucks. The pump house has also increased from one truck to a two-truck fill station.
"We're providing higher quality disinfection than previously, we're taking more of the dirt out of the water and the water will be safer, cleaner and should taste better," said Orr.
The $12-million project was funded by the Building Canada Fund, 25 per cent of the funding from the territory. The old water station is set to be demolished.
