3 Nunavut water plants face public health orders over safety
Chlorine and disinfection issues persist in Baker Lake, Coral Harbour and Naujaat
A truck delivers water in Naujaat. The community is one of three in Nunavut currently under a public health order to fix health and safety issues at its water treatment plant. (Photo courtesy of Hamlet of Naujaat)
This story is the second in a two-part series looking into the state of drinking water provided to Nunavut communities.
Water treatment plants in three Nunavut communities — Naujaat, Coral Harbour and Baker Lake — are under orders from the Government of Nunavut’s public health branch to fix health and safety issues.
In Naujaat, a January 2024 inspection of the water treatment plant found a chlorine leak in a room without working ventilation. There were dry deposits of the corrosive and possibly dangerous chemical around the room. Small amounts of chlorine are used in the water treatment process to kill bacteria but higher concentrations can be dangerous to human health.
“The chlorine room appears unsafe to work within,” said the Jan. 31 inspection report by Government of Nunavut environmental health inspector Gary Nelson.
The plant’s emergency auto-dial call system, which alerts officials to a malfunction in the system, was also broken.
“In the event of a power or heating failure, no one would know and the plant could freeze up, causing significant damage and perhaps the plant’s destruction,” Nelson said in the report.
On top of all this, nobody working there was trained to operate a water-treatment plant — a situation the report called “very risky.”
Environmental health officers can order repairs where they believe a water plant is not running within the regulations of Nunavut’s Public Health Act. Orders can result in fines and other penalties under the act.
Who owns Coral Harbour’s water treatment plant?
Nunatsiaq News learned of Coral Harbour’s May 2023 public health order, in place for the past year, in a request under Nunavut’s access to information law.
Health Department spokesperson Nadine Purdy confirmed in an email that public health orders are also in place in the two other communities.
Coral Harbour’s water treatment plant is only using three of its four chlorine lines, according to the public health order dated May 2, 2023.
“All four pumps need to run to achieve sufficient levels of chlorine,” the order said.
During the latest inspection, the inspector had to leave the chlorine room “after a few seconds” due to the strong chlorine odour, the report noted.
On top of that, the plant’s emergency auto-dial call system was turned off due to “multiple false alarms.”
“The low temperature alarm is critical to the plant’s safety, should the heat fail in the building,” the order said.
A March 2023 GN safe drinking water strategic framework includes a map showing which level of government is responsible for plants in each community.
The map shows Coral Harbour’s plant is owned by the municipality.
However, a question of ownership apparently led to confusion over who is responsible for repairs.
Coral Harbour’s public health order noted the Department of Community and Government Services “made promises” to resolve the issues at the plant but has not followed through.
“Recently CGS has asserted that they do not own the plant,” the order said.
“The hamlet senior administrative officer has stated that the hamlet does not have the technical knowledge or ability to make changes to the water plant, and that the water plant is not a hamlet possession.”
The GN is managing work to repair the plant “while the municipality covers project costs,” said Community and Government Services spokesperson Greg Belanger in an email to Nunatsiaq News.
A plant assessment is complete. Repairs to the chlorination system will be done by the Aug. 27 deadline, Belanger said.
‘Moderate’ water contamination risk in Baker Lake
Baker Lake’s water treatment plant is outfitted with an ultraviolet light system, as well as chlorine disinfection. However, the UV system is broken, according to a Jan. 11 inspection report.
“UV is the only technology within the treatment train that can deactivate waterborne parasites,” said Nelson in his report. “As the plant operates today, the plant can only remove bacteria and viruses from the source water.”
There are water quality and advisory concerns, in addition to a “moderate risk to source water contamination,” according to information provided to Nunatsiaq News from Community and Government Services.
One recommendation is to identify a secondary water source because the area’s topography allows runoff from the entire community to drain into Baker Lake, which is the hamlet’s water source.
As well, shipping vessels, including fuel resupply, travel on Baker Lake. Both issues create hydrocarbon contamination concerns, said Belanger.
Baker Lake’s water treatment plant does not have the capacity to remove hydrocarbons from the water, even though testing for hydrocarbons is part of the routine monitoring of drinking water at the plant, he said.
The GN owns and operates the water treatment plants in Naujaat and Baker Lake. Repairs are underway in both communities, Belanger said.
The first part of this series, Health, safety violations common at Nunavut water treatment plants, was published on Tuesday, May 21.
Morale of the story? Look after your own issues before you tackle world peace talks.
But I thought the United Nations expert on sanitation said Nunavut had some of the safest drinking water in the world?
It’s the treatment plants that aren’t in working order. And the people who are supposed to run it, don’t have a bloody clue on how to operate the plant. Let alone fix any issues the plant has. I’ve been saying it for years even before environment specialist arrived. Baker lakes drinking water is polluted by the community’s run off. Dirty brown water from dirt road. Plus, the freaken sewage drain site slides right down to the lake. Sewage drain site is located right next to the freaken dump site. The sewage is overflowing creating a creek. The town put a culvert into the road for the sewage run off 2 kilometers southeast of the sewage lagoon. The sewer drains through this culvert. Gets into a small lake, which is diverted through another culvert going down to baker lake. You can see green slime around there.
The Thelon river flows from the west and flows east down to Chesterfield Inlet. The Thelon River flows all year long under the ice. The flow from the creek does not flow back up the river due to the strength of the river.
Although, the people of the community have request that the dump and the and the lagoon be moved further out study after study has been done but no action has been taken to date.
I have visited baker lake several times, and people drink the untreated water straight from the lake winter and summer, no wonder they are always sick.
This article/series had potential to be good investigative journalism, but Nunatsiaq failed again……
Firstly, it would be beneficial to state at the beginning of the article that the Government of Nunavut (GN) owns and operates the water plants in Naujaat and Baker Lake, and then maybe note how many they do operate in the territory and how many the Hamlets are responsible for. This context is crucial for readers to understand the responsibility and operations of these facilities from the outset.
Key points that could enhance the article/series include:
1. Age of the Plants: Providing information about the age of the water plants in question would give readers a sense of the infrastructure’s condition and the potential challenges related to outdated equipment.
2. Qualifications and Skills: Discussing the qualifications and skills required to operate these plants would give context to the education and training needed. This could also highlight the difficulties in attracting and retaining qualified personnel in remote communities.
3. Training and Education: Highlighting the chronic lack of local training for operating water plant equipment is vital. The necessity for operators to travel to the south or Iqaluit for training underscores the logistical and financial barriers to effective local management.
4. Plant Design and Source Water: Explaining how plant design varies in different communities based on the source water being treated would provide insight into the complexity and specificity of water treatment in Nunavut.
5. Responsibility and Support: Noting that the Department of Community and Government Services (CGS) is responsible for the design and construction of the plants, and then in communities that the Hamlet operates the plants, turns them over to the Hamlet with little to no training or support, is critical. This would illuminate the gaps in the system that contribute to the current issues.
Investigative journalism is to provide readers with a deeper understanding of the issue, and on such a crucial topic deserves thorough exploration and presentation to see the big picture.
The journalist should also examine the current Public Water Supply Regulations to understand the standards that drinking water systems in Nunavut must meet. These regulations, which were last updated in 1990 and carried over from the Northwest Territories, raise an important question: why has the Department of Health not taken sufficient action to improve water safety in the territory?
It does not make any difference how old the plants are. The old plants operate just fine but to not meet the expectations of the 21st century. The newer plants are highly automated and are required to be operated by highly trained staff, but these plants still do not meet the Canada Drinking Water requirements. Just be thankful that Nunavut’s raw water is so pure, and yes, we are blessed to have this.
Nunavut needs to strip down the regulations to ensure that we have one standard for drinking water across the Territory. Nunavut is much different than the rest of Canada. There is little industry outside of the mines and no agriculture to harm the water. There is no sense building plants that have no chance of being properly maintained because they are designed to be operated by experienced “LISENCED” operators which there may be one or two in the whole Territory. There needs to be a standard of inspections and operations applied equally to all the plants, I don’t imagine the inspections in the Kivalliq are in line with the inspections in North Baffin.
Statements like “the Department of Community and Government Services “made promises” to resolve the issues at the plant but has not followed through.” has not helped anyone, and working together is the only way to get through these infrastructure and operational issues. Having GN staff throw their weight around void of any reality is only added to the problems.
Next up Nunavut’s landfills, because if you think water treatment is bad……. you aint seen nothing yet.
Nunavut’s demise will be the continual hiring of incompetent people for roles that require competence.
In Baker, one don’t need qualifications to work for the municipality.
Just relatives.
Nepotism is the rule of thumb.
Community Government and Services at it’s best!! Am I right Mr. Strickland?
Now the snow banks they created at the gas station in baker lake is melting rapidly and you can see gas mixed with the water that is draining into the lake. What the hell? Whats going to be done about it? Where’s the mayor? What is municipal service thinking when they made that location a dump spot for snow? It’s now in the towns drinking source too. Nasty.
Not good for people’s health! Sue to government, sue the hamlets!
Idiocracy is a movie worth watching. The basic plot is the world has forgotten how to use clean water how to dispose of garbage. They water plants with a concotion like gator aid since the world is run by a retired athlete that took one too many to the old noggin. Everyone sits around propogating, there is no education system and most are dumb as dirt. The world isn’t there yet but we are sure trying hard to get there.