Broken water pipe leads to city-wide shutdown in Iqaluit

Water from a broken pipe at Inuksuk High School flowing down the creek between the high rise complex and the old hospital at about 6:50 a.m. Jan. 13. (PHOTO BY JIM BELL)

(Updated, revised 12:30 p.m., Jan. 15)

A torrent of water that gushed from a broken water mains pipe near Inuksuk High School around midnight Jan. 13 forced a virtual shut-down of most activity in Iqaluit, as city workers worked all night and all morning to fix the damage.

Shaun Holmes, the city’s utility systems foreman, said millions of litres of water were lost from the city’s reservoir in only 20 minutes, causing substantial flooding in the breakwater area.

Holmes said the volume and force of the water discharge was so great, officials feared that vehicles could have been swept away.

But no one was injured and there was no loss of property, Holmes said.

Soon after, the city asked Iqaluit residents doing non-essential work to stay home and for all residents to conserve water.

As of Jan. 14, treated water levels had recovered at the city’s tanks, but regular deliveries had yet to start for households and businesses on trucked water routes.

That’s because of a boil-water advisory that the Government of Nunavut issued Jan. 13 as a “precautionary measure.”

Under that advisory, trucked water deliveries cannot start until after Iqaluit’s water is tested.

GN spokesperson Pam Coulter said water was to be tested for bacteria as soon as the Iqaluit system is back to normal. The government will wait for test results before lifting the advisory, a process that will take about 24 hours, she said

As of Jan. 15, the city had yet to receive the results of that test, and water deliveries had not resumed.

At the same time, near-blizzard weather conditions in Iqaluit Jan. 15 may prevent the resumption of water deliveries anyway.

“Blizzard may seriously hamper or thwart the City’s ability to deliver trucked water, even if the Public Health water test results are good,” Mayor Madeleine Redfern said in a tweet.

Because of this, the city is advising people on trucked routes to manually turn off their water pumps. One way to do this is to press a circuit-breaker switch marked “water pump.”

On Jan. 13, all schools closed, all daycares closed, the hospital closed, and most workplaces, including the Government of Nunavut, closed their doors

The Northmart store, however, was open Jan. 13, and the parking lot was jammed with shoppers’ vehicles that morning. Arctic Ventures and some other retail stories also opened for business

Coulter said water will be tested for bacteria as soon as the Iqaluit system is back to normal. The government will wait for test results before lifting the advisory, a process that will take about 24 hours.

Blaine Wiggins, Iqaluit’s fire chief, said the fire department put extra firefighters on duty Jan. 13, just in case.

And he said he was confident the department could handle a fire in the midst of a water shortage because of other measures they’ve taken.

“If there is a fire, because we are so used to utilizing water tenders, we do have access to refills and our trucks roll full anyways, as an added precaution we have extra fire fighters on today,” Wiggins told reporters mid-afternoon Jan. 13.

Right now the city is cautiously reintroducing water into the system, Wiggins said.

“As we re-introduce water into the system we have to take precautions because anywhere there has been still water there could be freezing,” he said.

After about 6:00 p.m., the city will put in place a contingency plan to supply water to trucked service households who may have run out.

“If we see some major problems we will have a plan in place to get water to individuals who are out of water or are on truck service and don’t have truck service.”

But the “worst case scenario” is that trucked water service would resume Jan. 14, Wiggins said.

“If there is a problem tonight we will announce as part of our contingency plan where a water truck will be so people can come and fill up,” he said Jan. 13.

Water pipe problems at Inuksuk High School first emerged earlier this week, and the school has been closed since Jan. 11.

The GN and and a private contractor are responsible for fixing water problems at the school.

It now appears as if the break in the 10-inch water mains pipe occurred after workers thought they had fixed the problem at the high school. A shut-off valve also failed.

This morning, city staff have brought the problem under control, but say it will take eight to 10 hours for treated water supply levels to rise.

Workers have been creating snow walls in the area near the breakwater in south Iqaluit to contain water that flooded down the creek from Inuksuk High School.

Snowmobilers are advised to be extremely careful around the breakwater area, because flood water has made the ice in that area unstable.

On Jan. 12, workers also responded to water main breaks in front of the Northwestel building and house 411 in Happy Valley.

(More to follow)