Sewage woes plague Nunavut capital’s Happy Valley area

Residents on Atungauyait Dr. in Iqaluit’s Happy Valley neighbourhood have been dealing with sewage pipe problems for two years, city officials say. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

The problems caused by Iqaluit’s aging infrastructure continue to mount: while many city residents went without water for days, others hope sewage won’t start pouring into the ditches around their neighbourhood.

The costs associated with the solutions are also mounting.

That was made clear when Iqaluit city councillors approved a tender bid on Aug. 11 to replace three sewer lines in the Happy Valley neighbourhood.

The project, bid on and won by Nunavut Excavating for $843,000, will replace old sewer main sections that have been blocked to increase sewage flow and save city staff from manually removing sewage from the affected area, a handout at the Aug. 11 council meeting says.

Richard Sparham, a municipal project officer, told Nunatsiaq News Aug. 11 that there are three sewer lines in Happy Valley that are currently affected.

“There’s a blockage in one sewer line that’s causing the majority of the issues, but there are two other sewer lines… that have also failed,” Sparham said.

Some 12 houses are affected, the city’s director of public works, Matthew Hamp, said Aug. 11.

“If we don’t continuously pump out the access valve, they would be getting [sewage] backflow,” Hamp said.

That backflow wouldn’t pour into homes, Hamp said, because of a “check valve”, but sewage could wind up in the ditches along the street.

Mayor Mary Wilman said Aug. 11 that the city currently has to manually pump sewage for three or four homes.

“We have to pump them out individually… because of aging infrastructure,” she said.

Hamp said this manual pumping has been going on for two years, three times a day until this past June, when the city had to start doing the operation four times a day.

Hamp estimated that a city sewer truck costs $185 an hour to operate.

If the daily pump-outs require one hour of work per day, with roughly 250 working days in a calendar year, the city has spent at least $100,000 over the past two years on its dilapidated infrastructure in the Happy Valley neighbourhood.

“Over two years, that’s certainly substantial resources,” Hamp said.

Now that the contract for repairs has been awarded, project officer Sparham said the third sealift will bring the required materials.

“We’re hoping to have it done by the end of the year,” he said, weather permitting.