Iqaluit dump extinguishing “60 per cent” done, contractor says

Mike Noblett of Global Forensics Inc., right, describes the status of the Iqaluit’s dump fire extinguishing efforts to city council, Sept. 9, with the city’s deputy fire chief, George Seigler. (PHOTO BY PETER VARGA)

Industrial firefighters have paid off, so far, in Iqaluit’s battle to extinguish the city’s dump fire.

Just 10 days into their campaign, firefighters told city council, Sept. 9, that they are more than halfway done in their battle to clear away a football-field-sized mountain of garbage that has burned since May 20.

“We’re looking at probably 60 per cent completion today,” site manager Mike Noblett of Global Forensics Inc., reported to council.

The city’s dump-extinguishing plan calls for the fire to be put out by Sept. 30 at a cost of $2.6 million.

The sum covers charges for industrial firefighters contracted to put out the fire, local heavy equipment and heavy equipment operators, and a series of high-volume water pumps, hoses, and fittings.

Almost $1.14 million of this has been spent so far, according to the city’s director of corporate services, John Maberri-Mudonyi.

“If everything continues as predicted, we may be within budget, or we may be slightly over,” the director told council.

“I am extremely happy with the amount of production that has taken place so far,” said Iqaluit’s deputy fire chief, George Seigler. “The amount of material that the crews have gone through is absolutely tremendous.”

Seigler is heading up the city’s fire department this month, while chief Luc Grandmaison is on vacation.

In a verbal report on the state of the dump fire, Seigler and Noblett also reported that firefighting operations have noticeably cleared up the air around the dump as well as the city.

Real-time monitoring for particulate matter from fire smoke, conducted by Environment Canada and Iqaluit’s fire department, show “we’re having, on most days, no particulate matter coming away from the landfill site,” Noblett said.

Firefighters’ top priority at the outset “was to ensure our actions were not going to make the situation worse, and that we were going to keep the air, and the area around the dump site in a better state than the way we found it,” Noblett said.

“And we’ve been able to do that so far.”

Global Forensics Inc. and industrial firefighting contractor Hellfire Suppression Services Inc. began their assault on the smoking pile Aug. 31, after quickly re-working the city’s dump extinguishing plan to cut back on time and minimize the risk of air and water pollution.

Altering the plan to tap into a fresh water supply form a nearby creek — instead of sea water from Frobisher Bay — made all the difference, said Noblett.

“The sea water avenue had two faults,” the site manager said. “One, the [unknown] effects of salt water on the fire, and two, that we would lose, on average, six to eight hours a day of water access because of the tides.”

From day one, crews have pumped about 1,000 gallons of water a minute onto the pile. That amounts to about five Iqaluit water trucks’ worth of water every 10 minutes, Noblett said.

That continuous stream of water, pumped from nearby Carney Creek, has cleared the air of smoke pollution since Aug. 31, and allowed heavy equipment crews from Iqaluit-based contractor Tower Arctic Ltd. to dig away at the pile.

Crews are overhauling the entire pile, bit by bit, into a “water pit,” where the waste material is quenched. Doused material is then hauled to an adjacent area of the dump, laid out into strips and compressed, Noblett said.

Layers of the compressed material will create a mound “no higher than seven metres,” which the city will eventually cap with inert material, Seigler said.

Asked about possible leakage of polluted water into Frobisher Bay, Seigler said city engineers, and the federal agencies of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada will continue to monitor the site “to ensure nothing is leaking.”

Noblett added that all pollutants are being contained at the site, and water re-used to keep it from entering surrounding waters.

Noting that crews may well extinguish the fire in advance of the city’s Sept. 30 deadline, Noblett told council that the private firefighters’ charges will end as soon as the fire is out.

Concern about possible overruns to the city’s $2.6 million budget for the dump-dousing operation sparked a short debate among councillors. Coun. Romeyn Stevenson said the city should request assistance from the Government of Nunavut if costs run higher, to keep the city from having to dig deeper into its own budget.

Coun. Terry Dobbin countered that, unlike other communities in Nunavut, Iqaluit’s dump is exclusively the city’s responsibility.

“It was supposed to be decommissioned back in 2001, and here we are in 2014, like a teenager asking to bail us out,” Dobbin said.

“We’ve neglected that responsibility for years and years. We’re to blame, not the GN.”

Fire chief Luc Grandmaison said in August that he expected fire-extinguishing costs would run up to $3.3 million.