Water, water everywhere…

JOHN THOMPSON

To understand Iqaluit’s busiest construction season, it helps to follow the wet stuff

Nearly every truck driver on the road wore a hard hat this past civic holiday in Iqaluit, where, as many government employees snoozed their way through the morning, backhoe loaders and bulldozers plugged the Ring Road.

Nunavut’s capital is in the midst of one of its most ambitious construction seasons, although many of the changes will occur beneath the ground, out of sight. From early July to late September, the few months when the temperature is warm enough for the ground to thaw, the city will spend $10-$13 million dollars.

Much rests on these projects. They’re financed by a six-year capital agreement with the Government of Nunavut, which has agreed to bankroll most expenses, provided the projects are completed by May 2008. If they’re not, the city of Iqaluit could be left to pay any outstanding bills.

“Big year,” says Brad Sokach, the city’s outgoing engineer.

To make sense of these changes, it helps to look a bit past the construction workers, at the burbling brooks that trickle down rocky embankments, through culverts and eventually, through meandering paths, into Frobisher Bay. For above all, the story of Iqaluit’s expansion is a story about water.

It begins at Lake Geraldine Dam, the city’s water reservoir. Recently the city tenured a $1.2 million contract to drill into the fractured bedrock the dam rests on and install metal rods to help anchor the structure in place. To keep pace with a growing population that’s expected to outstrip the existing reservoir in the next three to seven years, the lake’s water level will rise by two metres next year.

Combined with a new treated water storage tank, costing $222,000, this increased water volume will feed new residential areas, like the Plateau subdivision, where the first phase of construction is currently underway. Including the water booster station, that development will cost about $6 million. It’s the only large construction effort not covered by the capital plan agreement with the GN.

Water will also soon pump into existing homes currently supplied by truck in Lower Base, where the stench of unearthed petroleum-contaminated soil has caught the attention of Iqalungmuit during the installation of water and sewage lines.

The lower base utilidor lines will cost about $3 million, half of which was spent last year. Removing 48 homes in Lower Base from truck service will significantly cut future service costs.

More piped water also means fewer city trucks on the road – and fewer chances for fatal accidents involving them, like the ones that occurred several years ago. More water pressure also reduces the risk posed by fire. When the old Joamie school went up in flames in 2003, one reason for the building’s demise was diminishing water pressure.

With the flush of a toilet, water leaves homes as sewage. Right now, that sewage is discharged into the city’s smelly and overflowing sewage lagoon.

“A properly designed lagoon should hold sewage for about eight months,” Sokach said. “Ours does for about 10 days.”

New sewage treatment facilities to replace the lagoon are currently being built inside the old plant, a building finished at a cost of over $7 million – which never actually worked.

“This will work,” Sokach says.

That project will cost $3.2 million for first phase this year, and $5.6 million the following year, plus engineer’s fees.

What will be done with the sludge the plant will produce is still unclear – Sokach said it will be either packed in a landfill or used as compost. A study is currently being done on other northern communities to judge which method is best for Iqaluit.

The city’s under-code sewage lift station will also be upgraded, at a cost of $1.7 million. Currently it has inadequate wiring and heat, but most importantly, there’s no backup generator, which means when the power fails, sewage trucks need to be rushed to the station to prevent raw sewage from spilling into the bay, which is exactly what happened in 2000.

Even plans to pave sections of road leading to Apex and Tundra Valley with a technique called chip-sealing hinge on water, since the technology depends on dry weather and warm temperatures. About $650,000 has been set aside for that project.

Lesser projects include $300,000 towards crossing the waters, with repair work done to Iqaluit’s three bridges.

And $80,000 will be spent on the final stage of containing petroleum-contaminated waters inside the old North 40 metal dump, which continues to serve as the city’s source of gravel.