Who protects Nunavut’s water? No one.

IQALUIT — Regulatory loop-holes have created a situation where no one, apparently, is in charge of making sure that Nunavut’s water stays clean.

The Nunavut land claim agreement grants the Nunavut Water Board “responsibilities and powers over the regulation, use and management of water in the Nunavut Settlement Area”.

Yet despite the water board’s power to license water users, its recent hearings in Iqaluit showed that no other agency can — or wants to — enforce the terms of its licenses.

“If the regulators don’t have the teeth to do it, who will?” asked Paul Crowley, an Iqaluit lawyer who attended the board’s hearings. “There’s all these regulations and standards, but if they’re not met, there’s nothing we can do.”

The Baffin region’s environmental health officer has the power to close down the dump if it presents an immediate threat to public health.

But closing the dump could cause even more health dangers than the continued open-burn of trash.

Nunavut’s Sustainable Development department can’t act either, because it only has jurisdiction over territorial law.

And while Yukon’s territorial government recently adopted new solid waste regulations, Nunavut hasn’t yet adopted similar rules.

The new Yukon law says, for example, that by June 1, 2004 “no person shall open burn or cause the open burning of soil waste at a a waste disposal facility.” This regulation opens the door to penalties for those who don’t comply.

But Nunavut’s hands are tied, because there’s no specific territorial regulations to complement the federal Environmental Protection Act.

In Nunavut’s case, the federal government is still the regulatory agency.

But the Department of Northern Development and Indian Affairs says that it doesn’t have the manpower to enforce the terms of water board licenses.

According to the federal government’s lawyer Lee Weber, DIAND’s only water inspector in Iqaluit can’t be expected “to deal with all the garbage problems.”

Due to staff changes, there has been no water inspection done in Iqaluit in 1999.

Some witnesses at the recent Nunavut Water Board hearings in Iqaluit urged the board to fill the regulatory gap and to protect public health instead of worrying about the precise scope of its powers.

Others recommended that the board consider imposing penalties and fines on licensees who don’t comply with license conditions.

The water board has now asked for additional written opinions on the question of who is responsible for enforcement.

In mid-October the board plans to meet again in Iqaluit to table its decision on the Town of Iqaluit’s request for a new water license.