Untested artificial swamp could be used to filter run-off

City workers will soon test runoff from Iqaluit's landfill to find out what chemicals are draining into Koojessee Inlet.

Last year, Iqaluit's new sewage treatment plant went online, and began producing sludge, which has been stored at the West 40 landfill.

Some residents worry that human waste and other chemicals are running off from the dump, fouling nearby waters and camping areas.

"We do know there are issues with campers in the area and ultimately all that will be accounted for," said Geoff Baker, the city's head engineer. "We have to operate in an environmentally sound manner, which is what we're attempting to do here."

According to the city's 2006 annual report to the Nunavut Water Board, the city deposited 391 cubic metres of sludge in the landfill.

Last year the city also began renovating the aging landfill by expanding its size and digging ditches to direct runoff into a retaining pond.

Eventually, the city has to find a way to remove contaminants from that retaining pond, Baker said.

"At some point in the future we're going to have to look at a treatment type mechanism for the discharge from the landfill. However until we get in there to sample, we're not quite sure what type of treatment technology to go with," Baker said.

One possibility is an artificial wetland – a man-made swamp to filter run-off through plants, to separate contaminants from the water in the retaining pond.

Baker said such a wetland has not yet been built, but is one option the city is considering.

Some residents fear the city has already decided to move forward with the wetlands project. They point to an October 2006 letter to the city from a water inspector with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, which refers to a "wetlands treatment area [which] is also in the process of being completed."

But Baker flatly denies this is the case.

Members of the now-defunct solid waste steering committee raised questions about the contents of the landfill, before the city recently disbanded the committee for administrative reasons.

Siu-Ling Han was a committee member and remains concerned, among other things, that constructed wetlands may not work in the Arctic.

She points out that one International Polar Year project will see if a wetlands works in Rankin Inlet.

"If a body of esteemed scientists have decided that we don't know how to do this and that's why we need to do research, I don't know how we can come to a conclusion as a municipality with no expertise in this area that this is the best way of doing it," Han said.