'Little things lead to big things in a hurry.'

A twist of a water tap inside Iqaluit's Nakasuk elementary school last November ended up costing the Government of Nunavut more than $440,000 in damages, after the resulting spill flooded the school and created a costly-to-clean mould infestation.

And that figure doesn't include the cost of busing the school's 280 children to a half-dozen locations around town for six weeks.

The clean-up was so expensive largely because of special measures that workers are required to take in contaminated spaces, such as wearing special suits, said Brent Boddy, assistant deputy minister for the Government of Nunavut's department of community and government services.

The entire school, including air ducts, received a careful scrub to remove mould spores. Workers also removed asbestos and repaired old wiring.

The spill is believed to be caused by somebody who tried to turn on a faucet inside the school during a weekend in late November. No water would have come out, because workers, tinkering with the school's mechanical systems, had turned the water supply off.

No trouble would have come of the matter, except that the sink in question suffered from a plugged drain. When workers turned the water on later that day, the sink began to fill, then flood.

By the time the mess was discovered the following Monday, water had spilled down two floors and into a basement crawl space that quickly became infested with mould.

"That's how things are in the Arctic," said Boddy. "Little things lead to big things in a hurry."

Later, the school closed after students and teachers began to complain they had headaches and trouble breathing.