Snapshots of Northern Community Planning in Canada

Snapshots of Northern Community Planning in Canada

A Compilation of Technical Papers and Articles

By Kenneth Johnson Planner and Engineer cryofront@shaw.ca 2016 Edition

Snapshots of Northern Community Planning in Canada A Compilation of Technical Papers and Articles

By Kenneth Johnson Planner and Engineer cryofront@shaw.ca

Table of Contents 1. Iqaluit, Nunavut – Building Canada’s New Frontier Capital. PEGG Magazine, April 1999 .......................................................................................................................................... 1 2. Land Use Planning and Waste Management in Iqaluit, Nunavut. Canadian Institute of Planners Annual Conference, 2001 ............................................................... 7 3. Community Planning and Climate Change in the Canadian North. Plan Canada, 2001 ...................................................................................................................................... 11 4. Land Use Planning and Climate Change. Planning Digest, 2001 ............................ 15 5. Community Water and Energy Conservation Success in the Canadian North.

Planning Digest, 2002 ........................................................................................................ 19 6. Technology and Planning in the North: Past, Present and Future. Plan Canada 2002 ..................................................................................................................................... 23 7. Using Technology for Land Use planning in the Communities of Northern Canada.

Canadian Institute of Planners Annual Conferece 2002 ............................................ 25 8. Erosion Progression and Adaptation Strategy in a Northern Coastal Community.

8th International Conference on Permafrost, 2003. .................................................... 33 9. Aboriginal Land Use Planning – Balancing the Words and the Images. Planning Digest, 2003 ........................................................................................................................... 41 10. Residential Land Use Related to Landfill Sites in Cold Region Communities.

Originally Published at Conference on Assessment and Remediation of Contaminated Sites in Arctic and Cold Climates (ARCSACC), 2001. ...................... 47 11. Northern Planners – The “Visionaires” of Community Growth. Unpublished Article, 2003 ....................................................................................................................................... 57 12. Development Needs for Northern Communities – The Challenges Associated with the Continuing Boom. Planning Digest, 2004. ............................................................... 63 13. Planning People, Permafrost, and Pipes in Inuvik, NWT. Planning Digest, 2005 ....... 67 14. Cold Region Integrated Infrastructure Planning (CRIIP) – A Traditional Approach to Community Development. Unpublished Article, 2006. .............................................. 71 15. The Social Context of Wastewater Management in Remote Communities.

Western Canada Water Annual Conference, 2007. .................................................... 83 16. Crystal Airbase to City of Iqaluit – 70 Years of Transformation and Adaptation.

Planning Journal, 2016. ....................................................................................................... 93

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Iqaluit, Nunavut - Building Canada’s New Frontier Capital Kenneth Johnson Originally published in the PEGG magazine April 1999 On April 1, 1999 the Nunavut Territory will be created, and with it will come the Territorial Capital of Iqaluit, formerly known as Frobisher Bay. Located at 64 degrees North Latitude, and 2800 kilometres East Northeast of Edmonton, Iqaluit is the smallest of the Territorial Capitals, however, it is the most northerly capital. This new face on the nation is mind boggling to the ordinary Canadian, since it will encompass over 20 percent of Canada’s land mass, and a population of only 27, 000.

Iqaluit has the look of a Frontier with rolling barren terrain on the surface, and the silt, sand, gravel, and boulders encased in permafrost below the surface. Iqaluit also has the weather of a Frontier, with 8 months of the year in which the average air temperature is below freezing, and an average daily temperature in its warmest month of 8 degrees C.

Terrain around Iqaluit

This community of 4500 people enjoys the amenities of piped water and sewer systems, although approximately one third of the community remains on trucked water and sewer systems. The trucked sewer and water systems use insulated tanks typically with storage capacities of 500 to 1000 litres for water tanks, and 750 to 1500 litres for sewage tanks. The tanks are filled on a regular basis with a 4500 litre water truck, and the sewage tanks are emptied with a vacuum truck. The water systems in the houses operate on a pressurized system, and the sewer systems operate on a gravity system.

The piped systems in Iqaluit employ cold region technologies of insulated, shallow buried water and sewer mains, with double walled, insulated steel plate manholes. The water systems also use water circulation, and reheating as further freeze protection. These systems are quite expensive , but are an appropriate technology that has evolved for the permafrost conditions and the extreme temperature in the Frontier Capital.

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Access vault in the foreground with hydrant for access to buried water and sewer system

The water supply for the community is Lake Geraldine, immediately to the west of the community centre, which provides a gravity supply to most of the community as well as the truck fill station. Lake Geraldine is a good water supply requiring nominal filtration and chlorination water treatment.

With this infrastructure, the cost of water in Iqaluit is high, with a cost recovery rate of 1 cent per litre (4.5 cents per Imperial gallon). Residential water users enjoy a subsidized rate of 0.35 cents per litre. This rate in considerably more than the range of 0.08 to 0.25 cents per litre in the Edmonton area.

The piped water and sewer services to the individual houses are insulated copper for the water lines, and insulated high density polyethylene for the sewer. The water services use recirculation and heat tracing as the means to protect the lines from freezing; the recirculation is accomplished using a small pump in each individual house.

The sewer system employs 2 lift stations to collect from several of the seashore areas of the community, in addition to a trunk gravity sewer, which ultimately discharges into a primary treatment sewage lagoon.

Although the sewage treatment meets the current effluent criteria under the Town’s Water Licence , plans are underway to upgrade the system to meet expected secondary treatment criteria of a new water licence.

The buildings in Iqaluit are usually constructed on pile systems with the steel piles extending into bedrock, if possible, or well into the permafrost if the bedrock is too deep. The buildings usually have an open crawl space beneath them to maintain a thermal barrier, and keep the ground beneath the house as cold as possible. This thermal barrier maintains the integrity of the permafrost to minimizes the problems associated with permafrost thaw.

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House on pile foundation system.

Iqaluit is now experiencing a construction boom, as it prepares for the creation of Nunavut. The major construction activity currently underway, or underway in the near future includes:    

a $10 million legislature building in the shape of an igloo; a $7 million Federal office building and a territorial office building to match; a $40 million hospital; and. $10 million in improvements to the community’s water treatment and sewage treatment systems.

These major projects along with other minor projects amount to about $100 million of pubic-sector construction in the community over the next few years.

In 1998 alone, the value of building permits for public and private sector projects totalled approximately $53 million, which more than doubles any previous year of building activity. This amount of activity is astounding, particularly when compared to a community such as St. Albert, which issued approximately $59 million in building permits in 1998, and is a community 10 times the size of Iqaluit.

The $10 million legislature building is the largest project currently underway in the community. This project is somewhat unique because it is being built the by Inuit owned Nunavut Construction Corporation, utilizing a workforce that is approximately 75 percent Inuit.

Nunavut legislature building

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Construction planning to build in the Frontier Capital requires a level of planning beyond what may be considered normal in the southern latitudes. The delivery of material is dependent upon a relatively short period between the end of July and the end of October, when cargo ships have access through the seasonal ice pack for the annual sealift. The sealift is unique to the north, and particularly interesting in Iqaluit because the 12 metre tide and sandy bottom of Koojesse Inlet allows the ocean going ships to literally park on a dry beach while their cargo is unloaded.

The flurry of the sealift activity is matched by a flurry of construction activity to take advantage of the short construction season to complete excavations and exterior construction for buildings. The construction activity associated with buried infrastructure also faces an additional challenge with the presence of permafrost. Excavation into permafrost beyond the 1.5 to 2 metre active layer is approached in the same manner as the excavation of rock, although the gradual thawing of permafrost does assist in the ease of excavating.

The sealift activity over the past several years is another indication of the activity underway to build the Frontier Capital. In 1997, the sealift was estimated to include 9 ship visits, with a cargo weight in excess of 30,000 tonnes. In 1998, with the amount of additional construction going on, the figure was probably closer to 50,000 tonnes. This number includes only dry cargo, and not the fuel to heat the Town, and generate the electrical power.

The present community has come a long way from the airbase that was established in 1942 by the US Strategic Air Command. The activity associated with the US Air Force in Iqaluit remained throughout the 1950's and into the early 1960's with projects such as the DEW line system, and expansion of in-flight refuelling capabilities. The community was also given another boost with the establishment of the community as the regional headquarters for the Eastern Arctic in 1959.

Iqaluit’s new stature should provide a new attention on the Canadian North which has been lacking, except for the interest in the northern Canadian diamond industry (See article entitled Diamonds in the North “Ice” Beneath the Ice by Ken Johnson in the PEGG, September 1998).

The creation of Nunavut, and the expected boom in Iqaluit’s population to match the construction boom, may in fact double the current population in the next five years of Canada’s new Frontier Capital.

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LAND USE PLANNING AND WASTE MANAGEMENT IN IQALUIT, NUNAVUT Ken Johnson Engineer, Planner, and Surveyor UMA Engineering Ltd. ken.planner@home.com The City of Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada’s newest Capital City, is unique in its location, its culture, and its infrastructure. Its place in Canada is even more interesting given the population of Iqaluit is less than 6,000 people. Its infrastructure not only includes specialized systems for water and sewer delivery and collection, but also special considerations for waste management. The waste management in Iqaluit includes both sanitary sewage treatment and disposal, and solid waste disposal. Both of these waste streams have had significant influence on the development of Iqaluit in the past, and will continue to have significant influence on the development into the future.

History of Waste Management The City of Iqaluit has had a continuing problem with solid waste management and sewage treatment and disposal within the community. The history of waste management in Iqaluit has evolved no differently than most remote communities, with convenience and low cost being the original criteria for waste management systems.

For solid waste management, this problem began with the use of multiple solid waste disposal sites by various military organizations in the 1950s and 1960s; the problem continued after the military left Iqaluit. The use of the military dump sites, and additional unorganized sites by the community continued. The end result has been a total of six known community solid waste disposal sites, none of which have incorporated proper waste management techniques, or proper site reclamation.

The sewage treatment and disposal systems for the City have also been problematic, however, prior to 1978, raw sewage was discharged from a number of pipes along the shore. The primary sewage lagoon system which presently serves the City of Iqaluit was a major improvement to sewage treatment in 1978.

The location of the sewage lagoon has been a concern of the community for many years because of its proximity to the community core and the airport. This proximity has raised concerns from the perspective of aesthetics, public health, and public safety.

The lagoon operation has operated to the general satisfaction of the regulatory authorities, however, it has suffered from a number of catastrophic failures of portions of the dike structure. These failures have been attributed to both tidal action at the toe of the dikes, and surface runoff intrusion and overflows to the top of the dikes.

These failures have been documented in the years 1981, 1984 and 1991.

The City of Iqaluit retained consulting expertise in the early 1990s to provide preliminary engineering for improvements for solid waste management and sewage treatment and disposal. The engineering work has also included work for the cleanup of the existing solid waste disposal sites within the community.

The consultant’s work on solid waste management produced a new landfill site that was placed in operation in 1995. This site represented a significant step forward in waste management because the site was planned and engineered to include landfill design parameters such as on-site and off-site drainage control, access control and engineered roads, appropriate consideration of setbacks, and operation and maintenance planning. The engineering of the new landfill also received the appropriate regulatory scrutiny and approvals in advance of its operation.

The preliminary engineering on sewage treatment and disposal produced several recommendations for system improvements in consideration of the current effluent quality standards, and improved effluent quality standards.

In implementing improvements to sewage treatment and disposal, the City chose to pursue a design build approach to a sewage treatment facility.

The spatial relationships for waste management and development are now reasonably well defined by the regulatory framework currently in place, with considerations of setbacks for residential and commercial development, natural habitat, and transportation.

However, the waste management practices of the past continue to influence development in Iqaluit because many of these setbacks were not been applied or enforced.

The waste management activities in and around the City include five abandoned solid waste sites and a primary sewage lagoon.

Landfill Practices and Spatial Framework in Cold Regions Landfills in cold region communities are evolving from waste management of convenience to engineered landfill sites. The evolution of waste management sites from the so-called “dump” to the engineered landfill sites has occurred over many years, and is far from finished.

Many landfills remain very unsatisfactory to regulatory officials from public health and environmental impact perspectives. The reasons behind the remaining

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2001: A Spatial Odyssey/Odyssée de L’espace poor waste management practices are many, and include insufficient resources for waste management to an incomplete understanding of what appropriate waste management should include.

The landfills utilized in the cold regions may be generally categorized into four different types of “depression” types, “embankment” types, “mound” types and “excavation” types. The depression and embankment types represent landfills developed from convenience rather than design. The mound and excavation types represent engineered landfills that cold region communities now strive to construct and maintain. Many local factors ultimately determine the ultimate configuration and location of the landfill in a community.

The lining of community landfills in cold regions with an engineered material has never been undertaken and is unlikely to be undertaken in the foreseeable future given the added cost and the limited community capital budgets.

The spatial framework for landfills is governed by several pieces of legislation, the most significant of which is the Public Health Act, and the associated Public Health Regulation. The General Sanitation Regulations to the Public Health Acts in Nunavut are intended to address the public health and safety aspects.

The Regulations state that no building used for human habitation shall be: • nearer than 450 m to a waste disposal ground; or • on any site, the soil of which has been made up of any refuse, unless the refuse has been removed from the site or has been consolidated or the site has been disinfected in every case and the site has been approved by a Health Officer.

Although the regulation conveys some discretionary authority by the Health Officer, in practice, the regulators have not exercised any discretion with regard to setbacks.

As well, the Regulations also state that every waste disposal ground shall be: • located at least 90 m from any public road allowance, railway, right-of-way, cemetery, highway or thoroughfare; and • situated at such a distance from any source of water or ice for human consumption or ablution that no pollution shall take place.

Other agencies that are part of the spatial and regulatory framework include: the Nunavut Water Board; the Territorial Department of Renewable Resources; the Territorial Department of Community Government and Transportation; Transport Canada; Indian and Northern Affairs Canada; the Department of Fisheries and Oceans; and Environment Canada. Each agency has a regulatory influence in the form of the operations, maintenance, environmental impact or spatial relationship.

Sewage Treatment Practices and Spatial Framework in Cold Regions A variety of treatment options for wastewater treatment and disposal are available for cold region communities, however, the ultimate choice for a community depends upon technology which is appropriate to the location. The treatment technologies available may be categorized into the two general areas of mechanical and non-mechanical treatment, which describes the mechanism by which the sewage treatment is completed.

Mechanical treatment may be characterized by the need for a power supply, construction to accommodate devices imported to the community, and a reasonably sophisticated operating system. A common example of a mechanical system is a rotating biological contactor (RBC).

Non-mechanical treatment may be best characterized by using the very common example of a sewage lagoon.

This system often does not require a power supply, and may be constructed using mainly local materials. Sewage lagoon systems may be constructed systems or existing natural impoundments of a natural depression or lake system.

Mechanical treatment systems have not been widely utilized in NWT or Nunavut communities. The use of mechanical systems in the NWT has, in a number of cases, been unsuccessful. Lagoon systems for cold regions may be categorized as continuous discharge (short detention and long detention), intermittent discharge, and zero discharge.

The regulatory framework for sewage treatment and disposal is similar to that for solid waste, with similar agency involvement and similar setback requirements.

Land Use Bylaws and Waste Management The Town’s General Plan Bylaw was developed with sections to specifically address waste management past, present, and future in the context of land use planning.

The specific wording in the Bylaw includes the following passages devoted specifically to waste management: 1. The City will continue to evaluate options for long-term sewage treatment, including the relocation of the lagoon, or tertiary sewage treatment at the present site. The evaluation will consider cost-effectiveness, the degree of environmental protection and the land use implications.

2. The City will reserve a site in West 40 (west limit of the community) as shown on the Future Land Use Concept as a potential site for the relocation of the sewage lagoon. If another option for sewage treatment is adopted; then other potential uses for that site will be considered.

If the best solution is the relocation of the sewage lagoon, the existing site will be restored and consideration given

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2001: A Spatial Odyssey/Odyssée de L’espace to a second or relocated road link between West 40 and the rest of Iqaluit.

3. The City shall continue to evaluate all possible options for an integrated waste management system, including the suitability of the new landfill suit for long-term use and also considering complementary strategies such as source reduction, reuse, and recycling of waste materials.

4. The City shall continue to encourage the responsible federal, territorial and other agencies to assist in the clean up and restoration of the six landfill sites which are the legacy of fifty years of indiscriminate waste disposal. The City shall seek suitable end uses, such as recreational use, for these restored sites.

Future Waste Management This national spotlight for the City of Iqaluit has given rise to an increased awareness in many aspects of the community’s infrastructure, particularly waste management. Although the current practice of landfilling and open burning in an engineered landfill site is the status quo for most of northern Canada, this is no longer a desirable practice in the City of Iqaluit, particularly at the current landfill site in the West 40 area.

A sitting study was recently completed to position the City of Iqaluit to proceed with the implementation of a new waste management plan.

The siting study encompassed the entire area within the Municipal Boundary in order to satisfy any potential criticism in the siting process. Clearly, distance to a site becomes a significant factor from the onset given that the capital cost of an access road may exceed $250,000 per kilometre, and that operation and maintenance costs in the winter would be very expensive as well.

Ultimately implementation of a site will be based upon environmental and land use criteria, technology, and stakeholder and community consultation to gain acceptance of a site. The criteria for an environmental assessment of any particular site will also vary depending upon the site. The City of Iqaluit is suggesting that it will pursue the implementation of a solid waste incineration system to be located in the industrially zoned area. The implementation of this technology will ultimately depend upon available capital funding (in excess of $3 million), and sustainable operation and maintenance funding (in excess of $300,000 per year).

The City Iqaluit is also working toward the start-up of a new tertiary sewage treatment plant which may provide high quality treatment to serve the City well into the future. This $7 million capital project, with an operation and maintenance demand in excess of $400,000 per year, is awaiting completion of project deficiencies.

An interesting opportunity has emerged for some

residents in the Apex neighbourhood of Iqaluit. A technology known as wastewater recycling has received funding for a trial program for an 11 house cluster. This system would take wastewater from each house and complete a tertiary treatment process before pumping it back to be used to flush toilets and do laundry. Residents would still get a fresh supply of water for drinking and bathing. The water system is an innovative environmental project the City is banking on to conserve Iqaluit’s water supply Recycling wastewater is expected to reduce water consumption (from 1,825,700 litres a year to 912,850 litres a year) and cut down the number of water deliveries to households (4,000 to 100 per year).

The growth in Iqaluit over the past three years has put a tremendous strain on the City’s waste management systems. This, in turn, has placed demands and expectations on the City’s land use planning efforts related to waste management.

These improvements to the current waste management practices in the City of Iqaluit will improve the presentation of the community as a Territorial Capital, and also improve the development situation with regard to regulatory setback requirements for public safety, public health, and environmental protection.

Biography Ken Johnson is an engineer, planner and surveyor from St. Albert, Alberta. Ken’s formal training includes a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering, a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering, and Certificates in Site Planning and Survey Technology. Ken is a registered Professional Engineer in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, and the Province of Alberta.

Ken is also an Associate Member of the Alberta Land Surveyors Association, a Provisional Member of the Alberta Association of the Canadian Institute of Planners, and past Chair of the Cold Region Engineering Division of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering.

Ken’s professional experience in the Canadian north spans a period of 14 years; during 5 of these years he spent some time as a resident of each of the 3 Territorial Capitals. He has worked as far north as Canadian Forces Station Alert, and to the eastern and western limits of the Canadian north. Ken has provided consulting expertise in the areas of cold region municipal engineering, cold region environmental engineering, and land use planning in remote communities. His current areas of interest and study are land use planning and climate change in cold regions, on-site wastewater recycling in cold regions, and land use planning and waste management in cold regions.

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Community Planning and Climate Change in the Canadian North

by Ken Johnson, MCIP ACP

IN

THE SUMMER OF

1998 the Canadian

icebreaker “Louis St. Laurent” had a very notable experience in the Canadian Arctic. In past voyages, the heavy ice pack that is flushed south out of the permanent ice pack in the north forced ships like the “Louis St. Laurent” to the southern reaches of the Northwest Passage. On this occasion, however, she was able to sail north and west without any of the expected ice encounters—and, as a bonus, discovered relics of a British expedition that had searched in vain for the Franklin expedition 149 years ago.

With little fanfare, the “Louis St. Laurent” became the first surface vessel in 400 years of Arctic navigation to complete the shortest and most westerly route through the Northwest Passage. This event, along with satellite data that suggests a three percent decline in Arctic ice cover in each of the past three decades, has turned the concept of global climate change into reality. The observation by satellite translates into the loss of about 34,000 square kilometres of ice each year. The most dramatic evidence of climate change in the Canadian Arctic is the documented decrease in thickness of the permanent ice pack, which in some instances is almost one half the measured thickness it was fifty years ago.

The various impacts of climate change on community planning in the Canadian Arctic include challenges involving loss of land, flooding, and all of the associated

public health and safety issues. The regional land-use impacts will influence renewable resources (forestry, fish and wildlife), non-renewable resources (mining), and transportation (marine, allweather roads and ice roads). The effects are wide-ranging, from changes to the renewable resource aspect of the polar bear habitat to the transportation issues arising from a Northwest Passage that is navigable year-round. Such impacts will also influence community planning, as seen in the community of Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories.

Located on the Arctic Coast 2,023 kilometres north-northwest of Edmonton, Tuktoyaktuk was traditionally developed along a narrow spit of land reaching out into the Arctic Ocean. Since the permanent settlement of the community in 1934, storms blowing in from the Beaufort Sea have eroded the land of the original permanent settlement. Erosion has necessitated the relocation of a curling rink, a school and the RCMP building.

The elders of the community recall that a lake once existed on the north edge of Tuktoyaktuk, where now there is only ocean. In 1993, a storm eroded thirteen metres of the settlement’s shoreline.

Efforts are now being made to protect the shoreline because of the cultural importance of this portion of the community and its proximity to services such as the Hamlet Office and the Northern Store.

However, it is recognized by some that Mother Nature will eventually win. The existing problem is amplified by the strong possibility that climate change may increase the rate of erosion. Little is known about the mechanics of Arctic coastal erosion, and speculation at this point is based on scientific work done in temperate climates, where materials are not influenced by extreme temperatures.

Tundra polygons and many small lakes and ponds characterize the permafrost terrain around Tuktoyaktuk. The corresponding ground consists of loose glacial and alluvial deposits, which range from fine silts to large cobbles – in short, not a particularly great location to reconfigure a community.

Some consideration has been given to relocating the entire community to a more appropriate site inland. Aside from the tens of millions of dollars that such a move would cost, past experience with such communities as Aklavik (completely relocated, in theory, to Inuvik decades ago) has demonstrated that people are not willing to move. The community motto of Aklavik has remained “Never say die,” a response to the imposed relocation.

The new residential development area of Tuktoyaktuk is located six kilometres to the south of the community core. This neighbourhood is considered to be very isolated from the rest of the community, and presently does not have any amenities.

Community planning to address this eventual erosion is two-fold. The first exercise is to develop a framework for reconfiguring the community. This involves the following aspects: • Community consultation, in order to gain a sense of the spatial limits in which people will agree to live; • Engineering, in order to determine where it remains feasible to build and at what cost; • Stakeholder consultation, for the purpose of exploring opportunities to redevelop other land uses, particularly industry-related use, for residential use; and • Land-use policy development, to convey recognition and need for the community to reconfigure itself in the future.

The second exercise is to provide an administrative means to implement this framework. This exercise employs the development of appropriate zoning bylaws to direct and enforce the objectives in the land use policies. A review of the General Plan and Zoning Bylaws of the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk in 2000 tried to achieve these community planning goals.

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Summary Global climate change has taken centre stage in global politics over the past several years. Although impacts may be observed around the world, the most profound effects will occur in the Arctic regions, varying throughout the natural environment and influencing the peoples of the north, whose sustenance economies and associated activities will have to change in relation to the climate.

Community planners will have a challenge in the near and distant future: providing Arctic communities with the land use frameworks and the various tools needed to allow their communities to function and flourish in a increasingly dynamic natural environment.

Sommaire

Sachs Harbour is another community currently feeling the influence of climate change. Five hundred and twenty kilometres northeast of Inuvik, Sachs Harbour is witnessing a dramatic change in the segment of the seal population that has been available to the community’s hunters for many generations. One might conclude that the nature of this problem is related to renewable resources rather than to community planning, but that is not the case, because the community is seriously considering their need and desire to relocate in order to preserve their traditional lifestyle. This scenario, whether it is invoked in an off-the-cuff comment or in a serious community discussion, has tremendous ramifications for community planning and community infrastructure. A relocation of this magnitude, even though Sachs Harbour has only 140 inhabitants, is beyond the planning and infrastructure considerations of a remote camp, and would therefore be a new and expensive endeavour.

The examples of Tuktoyaktuk and Sachs Harbour may be considered extreme in nature at present, but the potential impacts of climate change are only now being identified, and have yet to be studied in any great depth.

Au cours des dernières années, le climat mondial est devenu un sujet d’actualité.

Les changements affecteront le monde entier. Toutefois, les régions arctiques seront les plus touchées. Les changements climatiques affecteront l’environnement naturel et les habitants des régions polaires, qui devront modifier leurs activités en conséquence. Les urbanistes devront relever un défi de taille dans les années à venir: établir un cadre d’utilisation des sols et développer des outils qui permettront aux communautés arctiques de se développer dans un environnement naturel de plus en plus dynamique.

Ken Johnson, M.A.Sc. P.Eng., is the Director of Cold Region Community Infrastructure, UMA Engineering Ltd. in Edmonton, and is a Provisional Member of CIP. He can be contacted at: kjohnson@umagroup.com

The Northwest Passage is also receiving renewed interest from the merchant marines of the world, drawn by predictions that, in as little as ten years, it could be a safe, navigable route from Asia to Europe, clipping 11,000 kilometres from the current route via the Panama Canal, and 19,000 kilometres from the route via the tip of South America. The implications from a global perspective are enormous, as are those from the perspective of regional and community planning, with the potential for industry-related and tourist-related activity.

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Janvier, Février, Mars 2001, Vol. 41, N° 1

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New media and Economic Transitions/Nouveaux média et transitions économiques

Technology and Planning in the North: Past, Present and Future

by Ken R. Johnson

BEFORE

THE SECOND

WORLD WAR, the

ing traditional and historic sites (such as campsites) that would be difficult to identify otherwise. Finally, the technology has allowed communities to define future development areas for which accurate base maps did not exist.

northern territories of Canada were a sparsely populated frontier of aboriginal peoples, fur traders, miners and adventurers. Many ideas about the North were based on the Klondike Gold Rush and the stories of nineteenth-century polar explorers.

Outsiders typically viewed the entire region as a land of ice and snow, occupied by subsistence hunters and gatherers. This perception was largely true.

Trading posts were the most prominent feature of early settlements, along with missions and RCMP outposts. The Second World War brought about gradual, significant changes to the North, with the construction of a chain of airports north and northwest of Edmonton, the Alaska Highway, the Canol Pipeline, and later on the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line.

Before contact with Western cultures, the native peoples of the North were huntergatherers. The food resources of the North, particularly the large game animals, were scattered over a vast area, so it was necessary to hunt in small groups. Such mobility demanded social structures that seemed poorly defined to most Europeans.

Thus began the deliberate and, until the 1970s, sustained effort to organize the peoples and lands of the North according to principles that were often destructive.

The present Since the 1970s, Northern aboriginals have actively sought self-determination and a reaffirmation of their cultures. Yet the aspirations of Northern communities are not so different from those of southern Canada. Residents wish to have safe and healthy places to live, work and play, even though the vastness and harsh climate of the North pose great challenges to these fundamental aspirations. To address these challenges while accommodating the aspects of traditional culture that remain strong, community planning must involve unique documents and modern technology.

Three types of modern technology have proved to be particularly well suited to the unique planning challenges faced by Northern communities:

The future

Digital image technology: Use of this technology in the North includes collecting digital images by camera, scanning sources such as aerial photographs, and creating digital maps. Because Northern land-use planning usually involves limited site inspections, photographs become an important reference for the non-resident planner. The phrase “film is cheap” takes on added significance in Northern planning, given the fact that the expenses associated with a site visit of less than a week may exceed $5,000.

Digital photographs are easily manipulated to fit a variety of presentation formats, from single images to mosaics with descriptive captions. The latter format, with its photojournalistic approach in which pictures and words tell a complete story, often produces presentations that are appealing to Northern communities. Because of the cross-cultural nature of Northern planning, photographs and images are often more effective than words.

Communication technology: Internet communication has allowed planners direct and convenient access to statistical information and to Northern stakeholders themselves, allowing timely feedback on development projects and plans.

Moreover, the professional translation resources available through Internet technology have extended written communication to the distinct Northern cultures, where English often remains a second language.

Global position system technology: GPS technology has provided a simple, costeffective tool for positioning development activity in and around Northern communities. It has also proved effective at locat-

Future planning in the North must apply the principles of Northern context, appropriate technology and incremental improvement. The costs of developing and sustaining Northern communities become prohibitive if these principles are not applied at every step of the planning and implementation process. The future of Northern planning must include a sustained, accessible base of technical knowledge, maintained outside the control of individuals or corporations from the south.

Before they were “discovered” by outsiders, then subdued and marginalized for what was thought to be their own betterment, Northern aboriginal peoples answered to no one but themselves. They are now, once again, on the path toward self-determination. Clearly, modern technology will play a role in the future development of Northern communities, as the practice of planning in the North shifts from the non-aboriginal to the aboriginal community.

Further reading Grainge, Jack. The Changing North: Recollections of an Early Environmentalist (Edmonton: CCI Press, 1999).

Johnson, Kenneth R. “Cold Region Engineering: The Future.”

Cryofront (February 2000).

Morrison, William R. True North: The Yukon and Northwest Territories (Toronto: Oxford Canada, 1998).

Ken R. Johnson is a land use planner and environmental engineer with EBA Engineering Consultants in Edmonton.

During his fifteen years of professional experience in the Canadian North, he has provided consulting expertise in land use planning, municipal engineering and environmental engineering. Ken recently received a professional award of merit from the Northwest Territories engineering association for his Web-based publication Cryofront. Ken may be contacted at ken.planners@shaw.ca.

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Juillet•Août•Septembre 2002, Vol. 42, N° 3

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Presentation for Canadian Institute of Planners Annual Conference May, 2002, Vancouver, BC Using Technology for Land Use Planning in the Communities of Northern Canada Prepared by Ken Johnson, P.Eng. Earth Tech Canada ken.johnson@earthtech.ca Revised 2003-06-25 Abstract Land use planning in northern Canada provides many opportunities for the use of technology. The application of technology is appropriate to the region because of the challenges associated with its size , terrain, climate, and cultures. It has opportunities for the entire scope of a northern planning project from initial community visits through to the production and implementation of planning documents. The technology includes global positioning systems, digital image collection, digital image processing, geographic information systems, data analysis, internet data collection and communication. The future use of technology in northern planning will move forward with an increasing application of these technologies by the communities themselves, which will enhance the opportunities for planners and provide the communities with skills for the implementation and administration of planning documents.

Introduction Technology continues to provide opportunities for land use planning that may only be limited by one’s imagination. Land use planning in northern Canada may be considered very fertile ground for one’s imagination given the challenges that are inherent to its size, terrain, climate, and most importantly the cultures.

The size of northern Canada, at nearly 40 percent of Canada’s area, and the vast distances are never truly appreciated on a map until one scales a distance from north to south, and realizes the tip of Ellesmere Island is nearly 4000 kilometers from Toronto. The climate in this vast area has winters that are in excess of 8 months long in most places, and temperatures that frequently drop to below - 30 degrees C. The distances, and associated isolation, have contributed to sustaining the unique cultures of the north, which are a primary challenge to land use planning. The number of distinct cultures of the north is best appreciated by the simple fact that the Northwest Territories has 8 official languages, including English and French.

The aspirations of the peoples of the Canadian north are not so different from those of southern Canada. The community residents wish to have safe and healthy places to live, work, and play. The size, and climate of the Canadian north impose some very harsh challenges to achieving these very fundamental aspirations. In addition, the traditional subsistence culture remains a strong element in the lives of the residents, particularly for those in the many smaller communities.

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Travel to these northern extremes is an expensive and time consuming exercise, which limits the site related activity that is critical to land use planning. As an example of expense and time, a full fare round trip plane ticket from Edmonton, Alberta, to Iqaluit, Nunavut, is over $4,000, and the travel takes the better part of a day.

Northern Planning Documents The NWT and Nunavut Planning Acts enable the preparation and adoption of General Plan and Zoning Bylaws as the tool for communities to organize and guide development. Once a General Plan Bylaw is adopted, a Zoning Bylaw must be enacted to include those areas of land affected by the General Plan. For many communities this approach may be desirable, but inappropriate to the community’s needs and resources. Many northern communities are just too small in regard to their community growth, and administration size to need the development tools enabled in General Plan and Zoning Bylaws.

As an alternative, the Land Use Plan format was created outside the Planning Acts as a nonstatutory means of addressing the small community’s desire to organize, and guide development. A Land Use Plan has no definition in the existing planning legislation, and is more of a guideline for a community to use when approving development.

The fundamental characteristics of the Land Use Plan format are that: 1. It uses a poster presentation format of maps with limited written information on land use objectives and guidelines.

2. It is adopted by a Resolution of the Community Council rather than by a Bylaw.

3. It provides for a “guide based” approach as opposed to the “rule based” approach of a General Plan.

The creation of a Land Use Plan does not restrict a community from at any time from expanding the existing documents to create the more comprehensive documents that are adopted under the Planning Act. Many communities can be expected to pursue a Community Plan in the future as their community growth requires the tools for development or redevelopment enabled by a Community Plan.

Global Positioning Systems Applications Global position systems (GPS) is a technology that is in many respects unbelievable given its availability, and cost to the casual user. Its use in most of the north does not have the receiver limitations caused by mountains and tree cover, therefore it is a very appropriate tool, in spite of the accuracy limits with the low cost handheld units.

Almost all of the communities in the north have a reasonable good base of airphotos and topographic mapping of the developed portion of the community. However, the community boundaries usually extend many kilometres beyond the developed portion of the community, therefore the planning work must rely on 1: 50,000 scale mapping for planning information and presentations within these undeveloped areas. The information on these maps is often out of date and lacking the detail needed for community planning.

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GPS technology provides a very simple and valuable tool for locating development activity outside the community centre on enlargements of 1:50,000 base maps, or extensions of the existing detailed mapping. Development activity such as landfills, sewage lagoons, water supply systems, borrow areas, roads and airports are all important parts of community planning, particularly when potential land use, health and safety conflicts may arise with future development. GPS technology also provides an effective tool for the location of traditional land use activities such as campsites, and historic sites that would be difficult to locate otherwise.

GPS may also be used to identify, and ultimately plot on a base map, the perimeter limits of potential land development sites that may be located outside the limits of detailed topographic mapping or airphotos. The GPS information is limited to horizontal coordinates since GPS generated elevations are much less accurate.

Application of Digital Image Collection Digital image collection includes the collection of original digital images by camera from site inspections, as well as digital images from scanned sources such as airphotos. Northern land use planning projects usually involve very limited site inspections, therefore photographs become a very important reference for the planner once the community visit is complete.

The pictures may include built features such as community buildings, and community infrastructure, and natural features.

The phrase “film is cheap” becomes very significant to northern planning given that the associated expenses of a site visit of less that a week may be worth $5000 or more.

Digital photo images allow simple manipulation to fit a variety of presentation formats from single photo images, to mosaics of photo images with descriptive captions. This presentation format reflects a photojournalism style, where pictures and words tell a more complete story, and provide a more appealing presentation. In the case of the cross cultural nature of northern planning, the photos may convey more information than the words.

The relatively simple preparation of a digitized series of airphotos of a community into a mosaic offers another perspective for a northern planning project. The use of topographic maps in the presentation of community planning perspectives may have limited appeal within some communities. The airphoto mosaic is literally a picture of the entire community, which everyone in the community may relate to in some fashion.

Digital Image Processing Applications The data analysis and planning related design has a host of computer technology related tools available. The most significant of these tools for planning in a northern community are the digital image processing tools, which include software, scanners, and plotters. In a northern cross-cultural situation the picture, map or airphoto is worth more that a “thousand words” because in some cases the native word may not exist for the planning concept being presented. The available computer systems to handle the extremely large graphic mosaics were uncommon a mere 10 years ago.

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The typical community planning map or “poster” may consist of a number of unique sections or “schedules”, as shown in the attached figure. The schedules may include land use text or table, an airphoto mosaic, a community boundary map, a community centre map and a community development phasing map. The land use text schedule presents land use related information, and may be repeated with a bilingual translation, which is quite common for planning maps in Nunavut. The airphoto mosaic schedule provides the complete community “picture”, as previously described. The community boundary map schedule provides the “bigger picture” of the community’s development showing activities such as waste management (lagoons and landfills), water supply, and granular materials.

The community centre map schedule presents the organization of development activity within the built up area of the community, and the typical zones of development activity.

The development phasing schedule presents the chronological phasing of development over the typical 20 year development horizon of a planning document.

Although the planning process may ultimately govern the success of a project in a southern context, the final presentation for a northern community is what governs its success through understanding, implementation and administration. The pictures, lines and colours that are complemented by limited multilingual text in the poster plan convey the understanding, implementation and administration of the final document.

Use of Geographic Information System Technology Geographic information systems (GIS) have become a routine technology in some cases for planning applications. However, for most of the community based planning projects of the north GIS has not yet had any significant applications because of its additional cost to a project, and the absence of any perceived value. Planning projects for the creation of a Land Use Plan have budgets in the range of $25,000 to $35,000, and the addition of a GIS component to this type of planning project could add an additional $5,000 to $10,000. The value of the GIS information could also be quite limited in many northern communities because of the size of the GIS information base, and the resources available to make use of the GIS information. The average community size in the NWT and Nunavut is less than 1000 people, which means that the community administration is limited in size and resources.

A recent project in the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk may provide a significant example of how the technology can be applied in the future. The scope of the study was to present shoreline erosion progression, and community impacts for this community of 1000 people on the Beaufort Sea. Within this scope was the need to compile information on buildings. The buildings in the shoreline erosion area were assessed and rated to provide a context of risk within which to consider the potential shoreline erosion for the next 10 to 25 years. The assessment encompassed a preliminary inventory of buildings with a photographs, coordinates, and a limited external inspection. This information was compiled in a geographic information system, including photographs, for reference as part of the decision making opportunities in the future.

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Application of Internet Data Collection, and Communication Population and other related information is an important part of the analysis in any planning project. For northern projects this information is potentially more critical given the extreme growth dynamics in some communities. For example, the City of Iqaluit has experienced a population growth of approximately 24 percent since the 1996 census, which has only been exceeded by one other metropolitan area in Canada according to the 2001 Census. Even more astounding than the population growth is the growth of dwelling units, which was over 50 percent since the 1996 census.

The collection of this essential background information for a community is no longer at the mercy of bound reports, which often have an uncertain or ilmited availability. Internet based population, socio-economic and other community data for the northern territories is providing easy access to this fundamental information.

Internet communication allows planners to have direct access to the communities, stakeholders, government planners, government statisticians, and timely feedback opportunities for visual, and other project information.

Internet communication also extends to the cross-cultural nature of northern planning work with simple access to translation resources for the production of multilingual text for various presentations. The value of this translation resource is particularly evident for communication within Nunavut, where the text base for Inuktitut is syllabics, and not the English alphabet.

Conclusions Northern community planning has a multitude of technologies at its disposal. Each of these technologies is providing a incremental improvement to the planning process, and planning product to ultimately better serve the needs of northern communities.

The future use of technology in northern planning may be as dynamic as the community planning itself given the rate of change of technology, and its relative cost. Northern planning, as mentioned, is starting to use GIS in support of planning administration, and internet graphic presentations are also emerging (www.members.shaw.ca/ken.planner/ posters.htm). The current application of these tools lies primarily within the senior governments, and consultants, but it is only a matter of time before the communities capture the knowledge and experience to make direct use of these tools.

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Ken Johnson is a land use planner and environmental engineer with Earth Tech Canada in Edmonton, Alberta. Ken’s formal training includes a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering, and a Master’s Degree in Environmental Engineering. Ken’s professional experience in the Canadian north spans a period of 16 years, during which time he has provided consulting expertise in the areas of community land use planning, cold region municipal engineering, and cold region environmental engineering. Ken has authored and co-authored close to 40 technical papers, and articles on various aspects of planning and engineering in northern communities, which have been published in journals, magazines, and conference proceedings. He also maintains an internet publication called Cryofront, which presents articles on various aspects cold region technologies, and a database of cold region technical abstracts. Ken may be reached by Email at ken.johnson@earthtech.ca, and Cryofront may be accessed at www.members.shaw.ca/cryofront/cryofront.htm.

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Aboriginal Land Use Planning – Balancing the Words and the Images Prepared for AACIP Planning Digest Prepared by:

Ken R. Johnson ken.johnson@earthtech.ca 780 453 0910

Revised: 2003 05 08

The increasing demand, and need for aboriginal communities to complete community land use plans is creating a dilemma for professional planners, senior government departments, and most importantly the aboriginal communities. From a traditional aboriginal community perspective, a land use planning document may be viewed as just another report that is the product of outsiders to their community. Aboriginal communities want to develop their communities in a way that is consistent with and reflects their inherent right to self government, their culture, their values and their traditions (Reference 1), and planning documents must convey this in an appropriate manner.

From a senior government perspective, a land use plan provides a singular presentation of information regarding community growth, which ultimately translates into the necessary capital, and operation and maintenance funding a community requires. The funds available to individual communities are competing against each other, therefore senior governments not only need a means to identify the funding amounts, but also a priority to attach to these limited funds.

Professional planners are now faced with the challenge of satisfying the fundamental needs of both groups, which in some respects are quite far apart. The solution to this challenge may rest with the recognition that one of the basic cultural elements of aboriginal communities is that written language is not fundamental to the culture, but rather a supplement of the past century from European cultures. Applying this concept suggests that the written word should be equally balanced with images in the community planning document. These images, which include photographs, drawings, and maps, should be integral to the planning document, and not part of an appendix to the document.

The graphic technology made available over the past ten years will make the application of this concept much easier (Reference 2). Powerful computer processors, versatile graphic software, scanners, digital cameras, and colour plotters are the tools that planners must use in working with aboriginal communities to create planning documents that are culturally relevant, and administratively functional. The written words are necessary for living in a modern global society, and are essential to an aboriginal community for communicating with those who have financial and administrative responsibilities to their communities. However, the ultimate success of the planning work may be judged by its relevance and appropriateness to the entire community, and not just the community administration, or the senior government officials.

Land use planning has become, for the most part, an inherent part of community growth in urban and rural settings. Not only is it a legislated aspect of community growth, but it has to some extent become an expected part of a public process to sustain the demands of a transparent process on things in the public domain. Clearly in the “western� culture, where written language has evolved over a period of thousands of years, and mass written communication has evolved in excess of 500 hundred years, a written expression of planning related work is essential to the process.

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A question should be raised on the appropriateness of this same level of written communication to the aboriginal culture, where within the same time frame, with the exception of the past century, the cultural was entirely oral.

People from oral cultures generally live in close connection with their environment and with each other (Reference 3). They tend not to think in abstract ways about their world and their lives, but rather in concrete and operational terms. Their learning is 'hands-on,' by apprenticeship or discipleship. On the other hand, the practice of writing presupposes distance in time and space between the author and the reader. Writing, and especially print, encourages the development of the mental habits of distance and objectivity; sound envelopes and bonds speaker and hearer, and writing marks the separation of author and reader. The printing press is a technology that allows us to keep the world, and each other, at arm's length. In an oral culture, elders are respected and appreciated for their indispensable memories, whereas in a print culture one need not heed one's elders in order to benefit from the accumulated wisdom of one's culture. Once printed books become readily available, one can hold the wisdom of the ages--the minds of persons long dead-in one's hands.

Fundamentally, there are two communication processes by which people learn (Reference 4).

The inherent way for learning in the non aboriginal culture is the literary method, where information is transmitted by means of systematic and sequential lessons drawn from events, and information. In contrast, the inherent way for learning in aboriginal cultural is oral, which uses stories and symbols as the means of conveying ideas, and information. The people from these different cultures are very different in the way they hear, learn, and communicate information about the world in which they live in.

Oral communicators learn by means of stories and symbols, and this applies in every area of their lives. Research among oral communicators, whether living in isolated areas or in cities, produced the conclusion that their retention was seldom higher than 20 percent of the knowledge shared when communicated by means of logical outlines of the information. However, when stories or a chronological teaching method was used, retention increased to at least 75-80 percent. Also, the attrition of information was dramatically reduced among the people who learned in ways more compatible with their normal learning processes.

One cannot assume that oral communicators cannot learn or that they are slow learners. In fact they can learn as fast as word culture, but they do not process information in the same way a word culture individual. The wisdom of the ages has been down for generations by means of oral communicators.

If an oral communicator lives in a community where a majority of the people in their community are oral communicators, they have little trouble functioning. However, as oral communicators find themselves in the minority in a community, it becomes ever more difficult for them to function.

In aboriginal communities the documentation of a planning process serves a number of purposes.

The documentation serves a fundamental role for senior governments who face increasingly greater and more complex demands on their skills and their decreasing administrative and financial resources.

The financial related planning to serve aboriginal communities is general referred to as capital planning (Reference 5), which produces a document that usually operates in increments of 5 or 10 years. Capital planning is needed to provide the technical information in support of decision 42

making for the construction of community capital works. In advance of a capital plan, what is called “comprehensive planning” is required as the on-going process of determining future development needs that will best meet an aboriginal community's needs and aspirations and make best use of all its resources.

Another tool in advance of a capital plan is the “physical development plan” which outlines spatial areas of the community in which physical development of a specific nature is planned, or will be allowed to take place. This planning process is supposed to focus the community and its leaders on development alternatives and accommodate community participation on where, how, when and what development should take place.

The capital planning documents, which are supported by land use planning information, are necessarily the product of engineers, and not planners. Although qualified to produce technical based documents and the supporting costs and rational, engineers are generally not trained or experienced in the process of translating this information into a presentation that is not only understandable by the aboriginal community, but also useful to the financial planning structure within senior governments. The common ground for this document is ultimately a visual presentation. The attached figure, visualizing a land development needs study for aboriginal communities, is a sample of the type of image that may be easily created to improve the communication for an aboriginal land use planning project (image courtesy of the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, Government of the Northwest Territories).

The planning documentation to balance the words and the pictures may best be described as a poster plan, which literally uses a poster presentation format of maps with limited written information on land use objectives and guidelines. The creation of a poster plan does not restrict a community at any time from expanding the existing documents to create the more comprehensive documents. Most aboriginal communities would be expected to pursue a more comprehensive text based document in the future, and some communities would pursue the more comprehensive document simultaneously to the poster plan.

Modern digital technologies have provided an opportunity for poster plans to flourish (Reference 2). Digital image collection is a key element, which includes the collection of original digital images by camera from site inspections, as well as digital images from scanned sources such as airphotos. Digital photo images allow simple manipulation to fit a variety of presentation formats from single photo images, to mosaics that visually show the intent of a planning process.

This presentation format reflects a photojournalism style, where pictures and words tell a more complete story, and provide a more appealing presentation.

The relatively simple preparation of a digitized series of airphotos of a community into a mosaic offers another perspective for a planning project. The use of topographic maps in the presentation of community planning perspectives may have limited appeal within some aboriginal communities. The airphoto mosaic is literally a picture of the entire community, which everyone in the community may relate to in some fashion. In a cross-cultural situation the picture, map or airphoto is worth more that a “thousand words” because in some cases the native word may not exist for the planning concept being presented.

Images fit well into a communication hierarchy in aboriginal community planning. This hierarchy extends from elders, middle aged individuals, young people, aboriginal administrators, through to senior government representatives.

Balancing the words and images means providing information that conveys the intent of the planning process, and stimulates interest in the outcome of the process from all levels of the 43

hierarchy. The image becomes the key communication tool at the initiation of the planning process because it may reflect back to the community as part of the narrative or story on what has been learned by the planner, and how this information relates to the planning process.

Synthesizing the information into the administrative context of a planning document, while maintaining the elements of the initial basis upon which the visual relationship with the community began, may be the ultimate challenge for the planner.

References 1. Bell, Mike. The Changing Face of Community Development in the North: From the Power Paradigm to the Spirit Paradigm. An Essay, 1999.

2. Johnson, Kenneth R. Using Technology for Land Use Planning in the Communities of Northern Canada. Proceedings of Canadian Institute of Planners Annual Conference. May, 2002.

3. From Orality to Literacy to Hypertext: Back to the Future? http://homepages.bw.edu/~rfowler/pubs/secondoral/oral.html 4. Jim Slack Western Analytical Cultures vs. Oral Relational Societies http://www.newwway.org/strategy_network/western_analytical_vs_oral_cultures.htm 5. Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Program Directives, 20-1, Volume 1. Indian and Inuit Affairs, Chaper 6, Capital Facilities and Community Services, PD 6.13, Capital Funding: Capital Planning Projects. March, 1988.

Biography Ken R. Johnson is a land use planning and engineering consultant with Earth Tech Canada in Edmonton. Ken's first opportunity to work with an aboriginal community was over 20 years ago as an undergraduate civil engineering student. His next opportunity to work with aboriginal communities did not come again until 1987 as a resident of the Northwest Territories. Since 1987, Ken has worked almost exclusively with aboriginal communities of the far north. Over the past three years he has had the opportunity to bring his experience to work with aboriginal communities "south of 60". Ken has a number of on-line publications including “uske” (Cree word for “land’), which resides in his on-line journal called “Cryofront.” Ken may be reached at ken.johnson@earthtech.ca

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RESIDENTIAL LAND USE RELATED TO LANDFILL SITES IN COLD REGION COMMUNITIES Ken Johnson, MASc, P.Eng. Land Use Planner Earth Tech Canada <ken.johnson@earthtech.ca>

ABSTRACT The 65 communities in the Northwest and Nunavut Territories of Canada each have a unique history of settlement and development. With settlement and development evolved waste disposal sites that were a product of convenience, rather than any appropriate waste management practices. As a result, many communities have waste disposal sites that are close to potential community residential expansion areas.

The regulatory framework currently governing community residential development in the vicinity of either a remediated or unremediated waste disposal site in the Territories has a specific setback requirement of 450 metres. There is no specific setback distance for remediated solid waste sites pursuant to the NWT Public Health Act. In fact, the General Sanitation Regulations under the Act refers to the setback distance for all waste disposal grounds and as such, may be interpreted to include remediated waste sites.

This approach to the setback for landfill sites is beginning to have impacts on communities as the communities continue to grow, and Land Use Plans are updated to identify areas for future growth. The impact on communities to “leap over” waste disposal sites in distances approaching 1,000 metres is significant from an infrastructure perspective (capital, operation, and maintenance costs) and a social perspective (distance to family, friends, and amenities).

A rational approach to a potential relaxation of the setback distance is presented for the Territories based upon the criteria of: site activity, remediation undertaken, subsurface conditions, surface conditions and community perception. This rational is compared to the application of landfill setback distances and landfill management that have been developed in the State of Alaska.

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INTRODUCTION Landfill Practices and Types Landfills in cold region communities are evolving from waste management of convenience to engineered landfill sites. The evolution of waste management sites from the so-called “dump” to the engineered landfill sites has occurred over many years, and is far from finished.

Many landfills remain very unsatisfactory to regulatory officials from public health and environmental impact perspectives. The reasons behind the remaining poor waste management practices are many, and include insufficient resources for waste management to an incomplete understanding of what appropriate waste management should include.

The landfills utilized in the cold regions may be generally categorized into four different types as shown in Figure 1. The depression and embankment types represent landfills developed from convenience rather than design. The mound and excavation types represent engineered landfills that cold region communities now strive to construct and maintain.

Many local factors ultimately determine the ultimate configuration and location of the landfill in a community. The lining of community landfills in cold regions with an engineered material has never been undertaken and is unlikely to be undertaken in the foreseeable future given the added cost and the limited community capital budgets.

Impact of Setbacks The impact of current setback requirements of the General Sanitation Regulations of the NWT and Nunavut Health Acts on residential development is twofold, as shown in Figure 2. The first impact is objective, and may be quantified in the capital cost of constructing a road and power supply which carries

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on to a new residential development; the cost of operating and maintaining the road; and the cost of operating water, sewer, fuel and waste management vehicles over this road.

Although the regulation conveys some discretionary authority by the Health Officer, in practice, the regulators have not exercised any discretion with regard to setbacks.

The second impact is subjective in the separation distance between neighbourhoods. This separation limits access to amenities, and the social structure of the community, both of which are very important to aboriginal communities.

As well, the Regulations also state that every waste disposal ground shall be:

BACKGROUND Leachate and Methane Gas The public health, public safety and environmental impact concerns with landfills arise primarily from the production of leachate and methane gas.

The generation of leachate and methane gas is dependent upon a number of factors, including temperature, moisture and overall makeup of the landfill, including the chemical nature and the physical nature of the waste. These factors have been well studied, and well documented in a southern context, however, the variability of these factors in a cold region context is not well documented or well studied.

Of the dependent factors, temperature and moisture may be considered to be limiting because without moisture leachate will not be generated, and without moisture or heat methane gas will not be generated.

General Sanitation Regulations The General Sanitation Regulations to the Public Health Acts in the NWT and Nunavut are intended to address the public health and safety aspects.

The Regulations state that no building used for human habitation shall be: 1.

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nearer than 450 m to a waste disposal ground; or on any site, the soil of which has been made up of any refuse, unless the refuse has been removed from the site or has been consolidated or the site has been disinfected in every case and the site has been approved by a Health Officer.

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1.

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located at least 90 m from any public road allowance, railway, right-of-way, cemetery, highway or thoroughfare; located at least 450 m from any building used for human occupancy or for the storage of food; and situated at such a distance from any source of water or ice for human consumption or ablution that no pollution shall take place.

A Commissionerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Exception to these regulations is possible, however, this is a long and potentially political process. A Commissionerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Exception has only been granted in a few cases in the NWT. The Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk The potential impact of these regulations varies from community to community, however, the community of Tuktoyaktuk in the Northwest Territories is a classic example of the potential influence of landfill setbacks on community residential development (See Figure 3).

The community has three landfills at various stages of activity. Two of the landfills have been closed and remediated, however, under the General Health Regulations, these waste disposal grounds shall be located at least 450 metres from any building used for human occupancy. The impact to existing and future community development by the application of the setback is significant given the limited land base of the community.

Obviously the application of the setback to the landfill near the community core would likely receive an exception based upon its proximity to a built up area and also the remediation completed. The other two sites present no opportunity under the current regulation for any change in the setback, and pose a significant impact on future residential development in a community which has extremely limited space for residential expansion.

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ANALYSIS Leachate and Methane Gas Production The generation of leachate is dependent upon factors including moisture, permeability of the landfill matrix, and absorption capacity of the landfill matrix. Of these conditions, moisture may be the primary limiting factor for the simple reason that without moisture leachate will not be generated.

The moisture data presented in Table 1 compares the total precipitation for key cold region communities for comparison to several southern Canadian centres. In the cold region communities, with the exception of Iqaluit, the total average annual precipitation falls below or close to the expected precipitation in a desert. Deserts, by definition, receive less than 250 mm of precipitation.

A unique consideration in cold regions is the availability of the moisture for infiltration into a landfill.

Table 1 also presents the available moisture in the form of rainfall. The average annual rainfall reduces the available precipitation or moisture by 1/3 to ½. The

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rainfall moisture may reflect the true moisture available to leachate generation because frozen ground, including normally permeable ground, has a low permeability. This condition may be observed in communities such as Beaver Creek, Yukon and Fort Smith, NWT during the short melt periods in the spring where significant ponding occurs on normally permeable ground.

TABLE 1 TEMPERATURE AND PRECIPITATION FOR SELECTED SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN COMMUNITIES Average Average Annual Average Yearly Temp.

Precipitation Annual Rainfall (°C) (mm) (mm) Edmonton 3.6 461.3 349.3 Vancouver 9.9 1,167.2 1,117.2 Winnipeg 2.4 504 404.4 Toronto 8.9 818.9 689.3 Dawson City -5.1 306.1 182.7 Whitehorse -1.2 261.2 145.5 Yellowknife -5.4 266.7 150.2 Inuvik -9.8 266.1 114.6 Cambridge -15.1 136.3 68.1 Bay Rankin Inlet -11.6 258.9 145.5 Iqaluit -9.3 432.6 192.1 Resolute Bay -16.6 131.4 52.7

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The social costs associated with isolation from a community centre are difficult to measure. Informal community studies and consultation repeatedly identify the desire for residential development to occur close to the existing community centre. In the case of Tuktoyaktuk, a community survey suggested that the new residential area to the south is not considered to be part of the existing community.

TABLE 3 ESTIMATED OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE COSTS FOR LANDFILL SETBACK ENVELOPE FOR A 50 LOT SUBDIVISION Trips per Year

Extra km per Trip (1.8 km/trip)

Time at 50 km/hr

Cost at $130/hr

Assumptions

Although biological activity is sustained at very low temperatures, the anaerobic biological activity necessary to produce methane gas would be significantly reduced in the cold region communities presented in Table 1. The average yearly temperature varies from -1.2°C in Whitehorse to -16.6°C in Resolute, compared to 3.6°C in Edmonton.

Social Costs

3 times/week 9 houses/ truck 2 times/week 6 houses/ truck

866

1,559

31.2

$4,050

866

1,559

31.2

$4,050

1 time/week 25 houses/ truck 1 time/month 4 houses/ truck Weekly

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$481

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$702

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3.1 (30 km/hr)

$406

Activity

The generation of methane is dependent upon the factors of moisture, nutrients, and temperature. Since moisture is limited in cold regions, as previously discussed, methane generation is limited. A further, potentially more significant, limitation to methane generation is temperature, which is presented in Table 1 in the value of average annual temperature for key northern centres, for comparison to several southern centres.

Monetary Costs The capital cost to bridge the region of no development, presented in Figure 2, has a number of elements including: 1.

2.

3.

4.

the capital cost of a 450 metre access road beyond the existing landfill; the capital cost of 900 metres of power line; the operation and maintenance cost of operating of water, sewer, solid waste, and fuel vehicles along this additional 900 metres of road; and operation and maintenance costs of the road itself.

A capital cost estimate of the road and power is presented in Table 2 and suggests a value of over $180,000 could be expected.

TABLE 2 ESTIMATED CAPITAL COSTS FOR LANDFILL SETBACK ENVELOPE Assumptions m Total Road $300/m 450 $135,000 Power $5,000/pole 900 $45,000 100 m/pole TOTAL COST $180,000

An operation and maintenance cost estimate for the operation and maintenance associated with the landfill setback is presented in Table 3 and suggests a potential annual cost of approximately $10,000.

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Trucked Water (500 L Tank & 4,500 L Truck) Trucked Sewage (750 L Tank & 4,500 L Truck) Solid Waste Fuel Oil (1,000 L Tank & 4,500 L Truck) Road Maintenance (Grader or Snow Plough) Total Cost/Year

$9,689

DISCUSSION Burden of Costs The burden of the capital and operation and maintenance costs to a small community are significant. The estimated $180,000 road and power capital cost is equivalent to a 2 bay garage for the community. The estimated $10,000 annual operation and maintenance cost would be a significant percentage of a communities operation and maintenance budget, and these budgets are decreasing.

Although the social costs are indeterminate, there is definitely a cost on an already overburdened social services system.

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Leachate and Methane Gas Concerns The production of leachate and methane gas may be significantly reduced in cold regions by the variation from southern climate in the factors that influence their production. This suggests that these two products should receive site specific consideration on not only their significance ,but also their impact.

Decision Rational A decision rational for a change in the existing setbacks may be developed based upon the following considerations: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

site activity; remediation complete; subsurface conditions; surface conditions; and community perception.

These basic consideration, presented in Figure 4, suggest an opportunity for a change in the setback.

The setback should ultimately include a consideration of the presence or absence of permafrost.

Site activity should be the fundamental consideration for any landfill setback and, as such, an operating landfill should not be considered for any change in the setback.

Remediation completed should be a minimal requirement for any action to change a setback distance, not only from a regulatory perspective, but also from a modern waste management perspective.

Subsurface conditions associated with the permeability of the in situ materials should be considered for their influence on the conveyance of any leachate or methane gas produced.

This consideration may be independent of permafrost.

Surface conditions for consideration would be associated with drainage and runoff which influence the availability of moisture within a landfill, and hence leachate or methane gas production even in a minimal amount.

Community perception may ultimately determine the tolerable proximity of a remediated landfill, however, other factors such as residential development

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proximity to a community may be more important to the community.

The final consideration would be permafrost conditions which could suggest a greater relaxation in the setback based upon the presence of permafrost.

State of Alaska Regulation The State of Alaska does not have a prescriptive setback for landfills from residential areas, but they do however require owners of proposed landfills to evaluate the potential risk to the underlying aquifer from landfill leachate. Landfills are prohibited from violating water quality standards (include drinking water standards) at a “point of compliance” or “poc” for groundwater which is 45 m from the waste cell boundary on the landfill facility property.

The landfill is also prohibited from adversely impacting adjacent properties or impacting use of adjacent property, therefore a “poc” may be established at a property line (located less than 150 m away) if the groundwater is or has the potential to be used as a drinking water supply.

Based on the groundwater modelling, a landfill would have to be set back far enough away from a residential area not to impact groundwater quality, or a liner could be installed if necessary to protect water quality downstream. The minimum setback is a 15 m setback from the edge of waste placement (cell boundary) to the property line.

Further to these setbacks, the State of Alaska does not require the installation of a liner, groundwater monitoring, or methane gas monitoring for a landfill located in regions of continuous or discontinuous permafrost if the landfill demonstrates that: 1.

2.

site is developed and operated to prevent permafrost degradation; a thermal analysis must consider the site specific effects of local heat sinks and sources, and the disturbances or removal of natural or artificial insulating layers; areas of permafrost that are critical to the operation of the landfill will not be allowed to thaw; these areas must be monitored with a sufficient number of thermistors to detect any thawing;

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3.

4.

5.

oils, liquids from spill cleanups, and waste that is incompatible with freezeback will not be placed in the landfill; the landfill is operated with a fluid management plan that minimizes any free liquid in the landfill; and after closure, the waste will remain frozen.

suggest a specific relaxation limit to the current setback regulations. It does however suggest an opportunity for analysis in the reflection upon the rational used in another cold region jurisdiction.

The landfill is excepted to be monitored for temperature and erosion during the active life and during post-closure of the landfill.

CONCLUSIONS The State of Alaska approaches the regulation of landfill setbacks in a significantly different manner to the NWT and Nunavut. The fundamental difference is the use of analysis and monitoring in the determination of landfill development and maintenance criteria.

Most significantly, this approach recognizes the inherent characteristics of â&#x20AC;&#x153;permafrostâ&#x20AC;? to the installation of a liner, groundwater monitoring, and methane gas monitoring for a landfill located in regions of continuous or discontinuous permafrost. These conditions are subject to a thermal analysis, operation and long term maintenance to prevent the waste from thawing.

The relaxation of restrictions that are more appropriate in a southern context has a precedent in the setback distance required for airports and landfills with regard to bird hazards to aircraft. The 8 kilometre setback guideline for Transport Canada was reviewed and revised in 1990 by the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs in consideration of factors unique to the north, and in reflection of setback guidelines utilized in the State of Alaska. Most importantly, the revised guideline identified the site specific factors that influence bird hazards to aircraft, and the spatial relation to landfills.

The increasing financial responsibility being transferred upon cold region communities of the NWT and Nunavut along with decreasing funds for capital and operation and maintenance is a new challenge facing all communities. Any reasonable opportunity to reduce capital and operation and maintenance costs to communities should be considered by all levels of government. The decision rational presented does not

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Northern Planners - The “Visionaries” of Community Growth

By Ken R. Johnson Revised 2003 07 30 A small group of individuals working with little recognition over the past 20 years have been making some very significant contributions to the future growth of communities across the Canadian north. These “northern planners” have been “visionaries” of northern community growth, but not in the sense of suggesting how northern communities should grow – this decision making is a community responsibility. Northern planners have been providing the visual tools to the communities for them to shape their own future. Words and images are the uniquely balanced in the documents produced by northern planners for the people and communities of the north.

An article in the Spring 2003 edition of the Alberta Association of the Canadian Institute of Planners, Planning Digest, presented a “message loud and clear” about words and images, according to Ralda De Beer, former Kitikmeot Regional Planner for the Government of Nunavut. The message concerns the necessary approach to planning in northern communities, and perhaps southern aboriginal communities that “balances the words and the images”.

The article suggests that that written language is not fundamental to aboriginal culture, but rather an addition to the culture from the intrusion of Europeans over the past century. Northern planners were the first to apply this idea that the written word should be equally balanced with images in the community planning document. These images, which include photographs, drawings, and maps, are integral to the planning document, and not part of an appendix to the document.

Graphic technology made available over the past ten years has made it much easier for northern planners apply of this approach. Powerful computer processors, versatile graphic software, scanners, digital cameras, and colour plotters are the tools that northern planners now use in working with communities to create planning documents that are culturally relevant, and administratively functional. The written words common to planning documents created in the south are necessary for living in a modern global society, and are essential to an aboriginal community for communicating with those who have financial and administrative responsibilities to their communities. However, these words may be added to the planning document once the base visual information is established.

In the “western” culture, where written language has evolved over a period of thousands of years, and mass written communication has evolving for over 500 years, a written expression of planning related work is essential. This same level of written communication is not appropriate to aboriginal cultures, where within the same time frame, with the exception of the past century or less, the cultural was entirely oral.

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People from oral cultures generally live in close connection with their environment and with each other. They do not tend to think in abstract ways about their world and their lives, but rather in concrete and operational terms their learning is 'hands-on'. The practice of writing, on the other hand, may have a separation in time and space between the author and the reader. Whereas, sound envelopes and bonds the speaker and the listener, writing marks a separation of writer and the reader. In an oral culture, elders are respected and appreciated for their memories. In a print culture, the younger generations do not need the wisdom of the elders in order to benefit from their accumulated knowledge. Once printed books become readily available, an individual has the “wisdom of the ages” at their fingertips.

Ralda De Beer suggests that “we Westerners should be making the necessary changes in our approaches and attitudes so that we will make optimal use of the limited funding that is made available for planning, and in the same time deliver the best end result that will have the highest chance for successful implementation.” She has observed that “too often in the past, Inuit have been disappointed when planners from the south "dropped" expensive end products on their desks and left. In the past, failure to deliver a practical, and “easy to digest” planning documents, resulted in limited use.

She also suggests that “it is necessary to more then ever before have an open minded approach, listen with sensitivity to the needs and concerns of other cultural groups, so that we can meet them half way in what they want or expect from planners.”

Ron Tecsy, a Senior Planner with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs in Yellowknife suggests that “ the vast majority of residents of NWT communities respond better to visual displays and media than the written word.

Therefore, preparation of media presentations, using a variety of new methods should continue as part of the planning process - more specifically to encourage public participation.” Ron does suggest that “the younger proportion of the Aboriginal population (those up to 40 years to 50 years old) have a fluency in written and spoken English. Therefore written words in the planning documents prepared for the small communities are not as much of a barrier as they have been in the past.”

Bob Chapple, a Senior Planner with Community Government and Transportation in Rankin Inlet has observed that “the smaller communities need the visual based planning documents and larger communities such as Rankin Inlet and Arviat they are requesting a more comprehensive zoning by-laws. He noted that for “the Whale Cove Land Use Plan was made very visual by adding archive photos from Yellowknife, inserting an oblique photo of the community, and inserting a photo identifying community infrastructure. He added that “even for Rankin Inlet, it is important to make the plan visual to get people interested in planning. A dry black and white zoning map and text, makes 58

planning boring. Plans have to be visual for it can attract people and make planning easier to understand.“ Robert Laboucane, a Calgary based aboriginal awareness instructor, with over 20 years of experience, thinks that “the visual approach is a good idea. A picture is worth a thousand words and as English is a second language for most traditional Aboriginal communities, pictures, maps and graphics certainly have much more appeal and influence.”

Some planners who normally work in southern realms tend, out of their ignorance about, and inexperience in the north, to hold the printed word in much higher regard than the image. These planners suggest that “visual poster presentations are no different from the inches thick documents” and they also suggest that the challenges with northern planning are “translation and literacy problems” rather than a different way of thinking and learning.

Northerners are living in a time of tremendous change in their communities and the world around them. The approaches to interpreting the biophysical world of the north are finally beginning incorporate traditional knowledge and approaches as fundamental to any community related projects. With the help of northerner planners, these community changes will progress on the community’s and not someone else’s terms.

Ken Johnson is a senior land use planner with Earth Tech Canada. He has worked across the Canadian north over the past 16 years providing land use and infrastructure planning assistance to many communities, initially as a planner with the GNWT, and then as a planning consultant. He may be reached by email at ken.johnson@earthtech.ca

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Nunavut are being challenged to keep up with

A development

levels of government in the Northwest Te r r i t o r i e s . T h e k e y i s s u e s f r o m t h e f o r u m identified included the need for more project capital and easier financing, the high cost of

for the next year, then take off again with the construction of the Snap Lake Diamond mine, 220

kilometres northeast of Yellowknife. However, the booming economy is already taking its toll on

health, social and infrastructure services in the territory as the government struggles to keep up

with an aboriginal and non-aboriginal population boom.

for particular land uses.

V. .1

Spring 2004

because the demand may exceed the inventory

administration of existing development sites

smaller communities need to review the

five years. It was recognized that most of the

these communities must address in the next

Planning Digest 8

individuals representing developers, bankers, landlords, and representatives from all three

not reflect the changing land use demands that

closed event was attended by more than 100

Canada for the next decade (Reference 2). The NWT's red-hot economy is expected to be steady

documentation in most of the communities may The

in the City of Yellowknife (Reference 9).

However, the land use

vacant lots to meet their development demands in the next five years.

In March 2003, the Canada Mortgage and

communities may have sufficient inventory of

approximately 80 percent of the smaller

(GNWT) in 2003 (Reference 4) identified that

G o v e r n m e n t o f t h e N o r t h w e s t Te r r i t o r i e s

needs assessment completed by the

address, with limited funds.

competing priorities that communities have to

In addition, it is only one of a number of

(Reference 5).

3 to 5 years depending upon the community

process that may normally require a window of

activity in northern communities; it is a

development is an expensive and complex

the growth demand for developed land. Land

Housing Corporation hosted a forum on housing

and 23 per cent of Yukon's.

cent of the Northwest Territories' population,

i n t h e c o u n t r y. A b o r i g i n a l s m a k e u p 5 1 p e r

population, which is the highest concentration

represent 85 per cent of the territory's total

the North. The 22,720 aboriginals in Nunavut

The highest concentration of aboriginals is in

1996 and 2001.

A recent study suggests that the Northwest Territories' economy could remain the fastest growing in

The Challenges Associated Continuing â&#x20AC;&#x153;Boom â&#x20AC;? with the

In contrast the total non-aboriginal

population grew only 3.4 per cent between

800,000.

cent higher than the 1996 figure of just under

Indians, MĂŠtis or Inuit. This count was 22 per

identified themselves as North American

and in the 2001 census, 976,300 people

population in January, 2003 (Reference 10),

Communities in the Northwest Territories and

skilled trades people.

staggering margin. Statistics Canada released new information on Canada's aboriginal

land development in the north, and the shortfall in building capacity given the lack of

In general, the growth of Canada's aboriginal

Kenneth R. Johnson

population is outpacing non-aboriginals by a

Development Needs for Northern Communities

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View toward downtown Yellowknife

landfill in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories

with the

process, the land may be transferred from the

concerns that odors from landfill sites and

toward municipal waste sites. Relocating waste

because of the requirements from the various

The Liidlii Kue First Nation

development can actually begin. The process

and demands a lengthy process before

of the Government of the Northwest Territories,

land falls under the administrative jurisdiction

area is unsurveyed Commissioner's land. This

housing units, but the proposed development

(LKFN) has proposed to create 40 to 50 new

(Reference 8).

Simpson's housing needs isn't a simple process

Building a new subdivision to meet Fort

per kilometre (Reference 5).

these facilities are approximately $250,000

thousands of dollars, and the access roads to

sewage lagoon) are in the hundreds of

costs for a new waste facility (landfill or

because of the simple fact that the capital

regulatory and non-regulatory stakeholders, and

had approximately 1000 more housing units 3).

This growth translates into over $45

that it did at the beginning of 2002 (Reference

small temporary cities for exploration and construction, and these camps are often using the established nearby community

that the lack of sites has driven prices so high that companies can't afford to develop unserviced lots may cost as much as $60,000.

Tundra Valley East area, after politicians and

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Planning Digest 8

Spring 2004

small scale water, sewer, and waste

the regulatory and logistical demands for the

down a proposal to develop a subdivision called residents demanded that the land be put aside

infrastructure (Reference 6). The use of infrastructure of nearby communities simplifies

In the fall of 2003, the City of Iqaluit turned

Resource development brings

emerging from outside the community boundaries.

increasingly difficult to find land on which to

Development demands on communities are also

According to Iqaluit developers it's becoming build (Reference 7). Contractors have stated

$85 million in 2003.

for a number of years.

The total value for all

in the City by 2007.

c o n s t r u c t i o n i n Ye l l o w k n i f e w a s a w h o p p i n g

2001 - an increase of almost 1,000 over five years, and the trend is supposed to continue

estimates of early 2002, which suggested that 1400 to 1600 housing units would be required

the creation of Nunavut. According to Statistics Canada, Iqaluit's population grew to 5,236 in

This

approved by the City in 2003 alone.

growth is well on the way to beating the

one of the fastest growing communities in Canada, 4 years after the boom associated with

million in residential related construction

arm.

communities are growing, and expanding

By the end of 2003, the City of Yellowknife

The Capital City of Nunavut, Iqaluit remains

Enterprises, the LKFN's economic development

The

management facilities is not a simple matter

GNWT to the Village of Fort Simpson, who, in turn, can sign over the land to Nogha

sewage lagoons (Reference 1) are making some

people in their communities sick.

until 2006.

has at least one project in the preliminary stages, but that development may not start

At the end of this

Nations and the Dene Nation, as well as stakeholder consultations.

The Dogrib

community waste management.

Community Services Board has expressed

and not developed because of the potential impact on a traditional land use area. The City

involves obtaining solicited letters of support from the MĂŠtis Local, the Deh Cho First

One important issue missed in the GNWT

assessment is the proximity and problems for

The Challenges Associated Continuing â&#x20AC;&#x153;Boom â&#x20AC;?

Development Needs for Northern Communities

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The development in the City of Iqaluit has produced some unique structures; this complex is know as "Legoland".

The town centre of the City of Iqaluit has experienced unprecedented growth since the creation of Nunavut in 1999.

with the

This additional

Aboriginal Peoples of Canada: A Demographic Profile, 2001 Census (Analysis series, 2001 Census) Graph Population reporting Aboriginal ancestry (origin), Canada, 1901-2001

designed to respond to resource based needs.

some community systems, which were never

service demand may push the capacity limits of

to the local governments.

services without the appropriate compensation

H o w e v e r, c a m p s a r e o f t e n u t i l i z i n g t h e s e

management systems associated with camps.

The Challenges Associated Continuing â&#x20AC;&#x153;Boom â&#x20AC;?

Development Needs for Northern Communities

Many communities are finding the

H o w e v e r, t h e s e r e s o u r c e s a r e

V. .1

Cryofront (www.cryofront.com).

Spring 2004

maintains an award winning website called

region community infrastructure, and he

He is a nationally recognized expert in cold

use and infrastructure related problems.

communities since the early 1980's on land

northern Aboriginal

has been working with

Canada in Edmonton. He

Engineer with Earth Tech

Senior Planner and

Kenneth R. Johnson is a

10. Ibid. Aboriginal Growth Spurt. January 27, 2003.

9. Ibid. Search For Housing Answers. March 19, 2003.

September 5, 2003.

8. Ibid. This is Our Land - We Want to Develop It.

7. Ibid. Housing Crunch in Iqaluit. November 10, 2003.

December 12, 2003.

6. Northern News Services. Bracing for Impact.

Comprehensive Summary. November, 2003.

Water and Sewer Infrastructure in Northern Communities

5. Johnson, Kenneth R.

Land Development Needs Assessment. March, 2003

Government of the Northwest Territories.

4. Department of Municipal and Community Affairs,

July 17, 2003.

3. Ibid. No End in Sight for Yellowknife.

December 8, 2003.

2. Ibid. NWT at Start of Decade-Long Boom.

January 30 2004.

Expansion a Growing Problem for Dogrib Towns.

1. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

References

Planning Digest 8

development needs for northern communities.

meet the challenges associated with

will ultimately be required in the future to

discovering that new and innovative approaches

consultants.

assistance from senior governments and

receiving the needed technical and capacity

Many cold region communities are seeking, and

compliance.

regard to community funding and regulatory

themselves in very undesirable situations with

resources, and as a consequence are placing

beyond their financial and administrative

demands of these complexities to be well

level.

communities, particularly at the community

development, and sustainability in cold region

overall complexity of infrastructure

Many of these changes have increased the

the regulatory environments.

structures, the operational responsibilities, and

financial resources, the administrative

substantially with changes to the available

complexity of these factors has increased

regulatory factors. Over the past 10 years the

financial, administrative, operational and

always been influenced by a variety of

infrastructure in cold region communities has

The development and sustaining of

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The Town of Inuvik is Canada’s largest community north of the Arctic Circle, and has a unique history as the first “planned” northern community.

According to some, there has never been a Canadian town so “pondered, proposed, projected, planned, prepared and plotted” as East-3, which was its original site identification back in the 1950’s.

Inuvik was planned by the Canadian government in the late 1950’s to replace the flood-prone Aklavik, 50 kilometres to the west, as the region’s administrative centre. Canadian Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker dedicated Inuvik as “The first community north of the Arctic Circle built to provide the facilities of a southern Canadian town. It was designed not only as a base for development and administration, but as a centre to bring education, medical care and new opportunity to the people of the western Arctic.”

The site for Inuvik was chosen for its elevation above the Mackenzie River flood zone, abundant gravel deposits, ample space for an airport, freshwater lakes and navigable waters. The community sits on a broad terrace between East Channel of the Mackenzie River, and the upland that forms the present-day Mackenzie Delta’s eastern boundary. The Mackenzie Delta is the largest delta in Canada; it is 210 kilometres long and an average width of 62 kilometres, occupying 13,000 square kilometres.

Inuvik (an Inuvialuktun word meaning “the place of Man”) is also a unique community in the Mackenzie Delta/Beaufort region. The residents of Inuvik come from the region’s two major aboriginal groups, the Gwich’in and the Inuvialuit, but they also include a very sizeable non-aboriginal population drawn from around the world.

Ken R. Johnson, ACP, MCIP

Planning for People, Permafrost and Pipes in Inuvik, NWT

the new “utilidor” system in Inuvik uses separate pipes for water and sewer; houses connect to the utilidor at the back of each lot

68

the

of

new development areas in Inuvik are on the fringe of the natural northern forest

The water and sewer mains and power poles that service each building run along a dedicated right-of-way along the back of each lot; the cost of these services is about $50,000 per lot. The service connections exit above ground from each building and resemble a large “metal centipede” as they connect to the water and sewer mains. Road crossings of the utilidor create another challenge because the road must literally bridge the utilidor, at a cost of nearly $50,000.

The problem with permafrost is that it never completely melts; however in the summer the top metre may melt with the warm temperatures. The permafrost ground below Inuvik also contains a lot of ice, which means that when it partially melts, the ground may settle by hundreds of millimetres to fill the voids left by the melting ice. This magnitude of settlement can cause major structural damage to buildings and pipes. The heat from houses, and water and sewer pipes may also melt permafrost, therefore all of the buildings pipes in Inuvik are built on piles to provide a “thermal break” between the building and the ground.

Other notable aspects of Inuvik’s townsite include long, very cold winters, permafrost, and great distance from sources of supply. Inuvik depends on southern sources for virtually all consumables and materials of all sorts, with the exception drinking water. The built environment of Inuvik must cope with the permafrost, and extreme cold for buildings, water, sewer, roads and drainage; each of these elements requires unique design and construction considerations.

some new housing development in Inuvik are very unique and reflect the northern frontier

V.

Planning Digest 9

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Spring 05

all houses in Inuvik are built on steel piles (bottom LH side of photo) extending well into the continuous permafrost - this creates a challenge for features such as an attached garage

Inuvik was originally developed with a reasonably compact and efficient downtown business core just east of the East Channel. Primary and secondary schools were located on large blocks of land between the downtown core and surrounding residential areas. A large regional hospital was sited at the south end of the townsite. The residential areas radiate outward from the central core area, and there is a considerable amount of undeveloped space between the current margins of developed residential districts and the perimeter collector road.

Inuvik’s methods of development access and site preparation have also adapted to the extreme conditions. Roads are built above the natural grade, with embankments thick enough to provide an insulating layer to minimize permafrost melting. Road grades and building lots are never excavated for pregrading purposes, to avoid the effects of continuing thaw settlement, which can continue for several years in the developed or disturbed areas. Building lots are often filled to provide grading for drainage and a drivable access to construction vehicles, as well as to reduce thaw settlement. Drainage runs on the surface, in ditches, except where it passes through culverts under roads.

Planning for People, Permafrost and Pipes in Inuvik, NWT

69

Inuvik grew steadily in the period of 1961 to 1986, from 1200 people to 3570 people. The population increased significantly in the mid-seventies along with the gas and oil exploration at the time. When the exploration activity declined in the late seventies, the population also declined a bit from about 3100 people to 2900 people. In the period of 1986 to 2004, the population of Inuvik dipped to around 3400, with minor fluctuations until returning to the 1986 population of near 3600.

The dominant residential housing type initially built was a 512 square foot house that was nicknamed the “512”; the majority of the “512’s” are still in use today. New residential housing in Inuvik has taken on a southern look, but the odd new house maintains a very northern flair. Inuvik acts as its own developer of serviced land for townsite expansion, undertaking both financing and administrative work itself in order to supply serviced lots at the lowest cost reasonably achievable.

the original water and sewer structure or “utilidor” was a single large box that ran between buildings

V.

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w i n tSeprr i0n4g/ 00 55

Kenneth R. Johnson is a Senior Planner and Engineer with Earth Tech Canada in Edmonton. He has been working with northern Aboriginal communities since the early 1980’s on land use and infrastructure related problems. He is a nationally recognized expert in cold region community infrastructure, and he maintains an award winning website called Cryofront (www.cryofront.com).

Bio

Planning Digest 9

The Town of Inuvik experienced a severe housing shortage in 2002 because of the economic growth of the coming Mackenzie Gas Pipeline; since 2000 there has essentially been a zero percent vacancy rate. The pipeline has opened another chapter for the community, and presents some very interesting challenges for planners and engineers, who must try to anticipate the potential community growth associated with the pipeline, and design the community expansion for “people, permafrost and pipes.”

The residents of Inuvik, and northern people in general, have a variety of lifestyles that usually revolve around a lot of outdoor activity; therefore quick and easy access to the natural environment is expected.

Inuvik’s outdoor activities are maintained on many fronts, including a strong cross country ski club, which has produced athletes for the Canadian Olympic team in the 1970’s. Indoor recreation in Inuvik is also strong, and it is supported by a new multiplex facility.

Planning for People, Permafrost and Pipes in Inuvik, NWT

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Cold Region Integrated Infrastructure Planning (CRIIP) – A Traditional Approach to Community Development Kenneth R. Johnson, MCIP, P.Eng. Developed: 2004 04 09 Revised: 2006 01 03 The development and sustaining of infrastructure of infrastructure in cold region communities has always been influenced by a variety of financial, administrative, operational and regulatory factors (Johnson, June 2003). Over the past 10 years the complexity of these factors has increased substantially with changes to infrastructure in the form of available financial resources, the administrative structures, the operational responsibilities, and the regulatory environments.

Many of these changes have increased the overall complexity of infrastructure development and sustainability in cold region communities particularly at the community level.

Many communities are finding the demands of these complexities to be well beyond their financial and administrative resources, and as a consequence are placing themselves in very undesirable situations with regard to community funding and regulatory compliance (Johnson, March 2003).

The growth of cold region communities, and aboriginal communities in general is outpacing non-aboriginals by a staggering margin. In the 2001 census the aboriginal community population of 976, 300 was 22 percent higher that the 1996 figure, whereas the non-aboriginal population grew only 3.4 percent in the same period (Johnson, April 2004) Many cold region communities are seeking, and receiving the technical and capacity assistance needed to cope with this boom from senior governments and consultant.

However, these resources are discovering that new and innovative approaches will ultimately be required in the future to meet the challenges associated with development needs for cold region communities.

The term “integrated” has been used in the context of urban planning with the recognition that one of the greatest challenges for natural and social scientists in the coming decades is to understand how urban areas evolve through interactions between humans and biophysical processes (Alberti, M., and Waddell, P., 2000). The term “integrated” has also been used in the context of applied sciences through the recognition of a global specialization of “integrated urban engineering” which educates engineers to technically manage the processes of urban infrastructure planning, provision, operation and maintenance in an integrated and innovative approach (UNESCO-IHE, Institute for Water Education).

The research, and training associated with these applications of “integrated infrastructure planning” do not recognize the unique and demanding characteristics of cold region communities which are the result of geography, climate, and culture.

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The concept of Cold Regions Integrated Infrastructure Planning (CRIIP) employs the underlying the key principal of cultural because many northern communities have difficulty seeing any relevance in planning as it is applied in a modern context (See Figure 1). The result that has been seen time and time again across the cold regions is that the infrastructure planning ultimately fails to meet its long term objectives.

The key elements of CRIIP are spatial, chronological, organizational, financial and educational (See Figure 2). The key strategies of CRIIP are combining knowledge, combining resources, and combining perspectives. The key questions for the CRIIP process, applying the key elements, are: • • •

What are the desired relationships; What are the required relationships; and, What are the practical relationships.

The need for a visual based approach in applying CRIIP is based upon the recognition that aboriginal communities have, with the exception of the past century, been exclusively oral in their communication. The inherent way for learning in an aboriginal cultural is oral, which uses stories and symbols as the means of conveying ideas, and information. The people from these different cultures are very different in the way they hear, learn, and communicate information about the world in which they live in (Johnson, April 2003).

The spatial elements of CRIIP (See Figure 3) present the fundamental envelopes of a community land use plan. The challenge in cold region communities is that the various envelopes of a community are often found to be in conflict or creating “negative interactions” as a community develops. These conflicts create potential public health issues with the potential for the contamination of drinking water supplies, as well as financial issues because the cost of new infrastructure is several times greater in cold region communities.

The organizational elements of CRIIP (See Figure 4) present the layers disseminating from community leadership; it must be recognized that in aboriginal cultures traditional decision making occurs from the grassroots up, and not from the top down.

Organizational activity will also occur parallel to the organizational layers. Senior Government administrations function in a modern context within and around the traditional activities.

The chronological elements of CRIIP (See Figure 5) evolve around the four seasons of time with traditional activities alternating with modern activities throughout the seasons.

Activities “accumulate” throughout the year from beginning to end and many milestones many occur in both a traditional and modern context. Traditional activities include hunting and fishing, and modern activities include the fiscal year cycle and the building season.

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The financial elements of CRIIP (See Figure 6) are entirely a modern phenomenon, which has a clearly established circular pattern formed around the “funding” requirements of infrastructure. The financial cycle may originate with needs, followed by substantiation; substantiation then moves to the funding application, decision making and finally the administration of the funding.

The educational elements of CRIIP (See Figure 7) are based upon the traditional education context where the inherent method of learning is “literary”, where information is transmitted by means of systematic and sequential lessons drawn from events, and information. The hierarchy of traditional learning follows from the elders with teaching and mentoring. In a modern context education may include “traditional” information and “technical” information.

The application of the elements of the CRIIP concept have occurred and are occurring on a regular basis, but these are only “pockets” of activities. The full potential of CRIIP may only be realized if the concept is fully applied on a broad basis with all of the “stakeholders” participating.

References: 1. Alberti, M., and Waddell, P. An Integrated Urban Development and Ecological Simulation Model.

Department of Urban Design and Planning, University of Washington. March, 2000 2. Johnson, Kenneth R. Development Needs for North Communities – The Challenges Associated with the Continuing “Boom”. Planning Digest, April, 2004 3. Johnson, Kenneth R. Balancing Words and Images. Planning Digest, April 2003.

4. Johnson, Kenneth R. Cold Region Integrated Infrastructure Planning (CRIIP).

Cryofront Journal of Cold Region Technologies, Volume 5, Number 2, March, 2003.

5. Johnson, Kenneth R. Water and Sewer Infrastructure – Integrated Perspective.

Unpublished Report. June, 2003.

6. UNESCO-IHE, Institute for Water Education. International Masters Programme in Municipal Water and Infrastructure, Integrated Urban Engineering. http://www.ihe.nl/education/mwi.htm

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THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT IN REMOTE COMMUNITIES Ken Johnson, M.A.Sc., MCIP, P.Eng. Earth Tech Canada Abstract The development and sustaining of infrastructure in remote communities has always been influenced by a variety of factors. Over the past decade, the complexity of these factors has increased substantially with changes to the available financial resources, the administrative structures, the operational responsibilities, and the regulatory environments. Many of these changes have increased the overall complexity of infrastructure development, and sustainability in remote communities, particularly at the community level. Many communities are finding the demands of these complexities to be well beyond their financial and administrative resources, and as a consequence are placing themselves in very undesirable situations with regard to community funding and regulatory compliance.

The challenges associated with wastewater management in remote communities occur in the areas of science, applied science, and social science. The science of wastewater management, particularly northern communities, remains incomplete, and consequently the regulatory frameworks are not realistic. The applied science or "engineering" of wastewater systems in remote communities should follow the key principles of appropriate technology, community context, incremental improvement. The social science associated with wastewater management in remote communities presents a multitude challenges which include, administrative, financial, and human resources.

The ecosystems of the remote regions of Canada are unique and fragile, and must be protected.

However, to date, the protective measures for these ecosystems have not been developed or implemented based upon the necessary northern science, applied science, and social science information.

Introduction On a political scale the remote areas of Canada constitute as much as 45% of Canada's land mass, including the regions of the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik (northern Quebec), and Nunatsiavut (northern Labradour) are included (see Figure 1). By contrast this vast region is populated by a mere 100,000 people occupying 90 communities. Which is an average Figure 1. Remote areas of Canada

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Figure 2. Defining remote areas by temperature – arctic region is defined by 10C isotherm. population of 1100 per community. In fact the communities of Whitehorse (24,000), Yellowknife (19,000) and Iqaluit (7,000) account for about half of the population making the average population for realistically less than 600 people per community.

The remote areas of Canada, and the world are most often defined by temperature, as well as geography. In a North American context, all of Canada, with the exception of the west coast, is considered very cold, and in fact, the United States considers the cold region to be the northern portion of the lower 48 states, rather than the state of Alaska (see Figure 2). The subarctic and arctic regions of Canada are considered to be beyond "very cold". The scientific approach defines the Arctic as the area where average temperature for the warmest month of the year (July) is below 10°C (50°F).

This macro scale for remote areas is very different from the micro scale that most remotes communities must function within. The limits of remote communities are often defined by the all weather road system that provides access to facilities such as the airport, the water source or the waste management area (see Figure 3). The interactions between these built infrastructure features of remote communities have positive and negative interactions within themselves, as well as the built features associated with human habitation.

The development and sustaining of this infrastructure in remote communities has always been influenced by a variety of technical, financial, administrative, operational and regulatory factors.

Over the past 10 years the complexity of these factors has increased substantially with changes to the available financial resources, the administrative structures, the operational responsibilities, and the regulatory environments.

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Many of these changes have increased the overall complexity of infrastructure development, and sustainability in remote communities, particularly at the community level. Many communities are finding the demands of these complexities to be well beyond their financial and administrative resources, and as a consequence are placing themselves in very undesirable situations with regard to community funding and regulatory compliance.

Figure 3. The opportunities and constraints of remote communities The challenges associated with wastewater management in remote communities occur in the areas of science, applied science, and social science.

Science of Wastewater Management The science of modern wastewater treatment systems may be described by a number of unit processes. Each process provides an increasingly higher quality of sewage effluent applying various physical, chemical and biological actions. The unit processes include: • • • • • •

preliminary treatment primary treatment secondary treatment tertiary treatment disinfection residuals management.

Preliminary treatment is a physical process which may be described in the exaggerated, but very simple terms of coarse screening of the sewage influent to remove “two by fours” and

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“bicycles.” This exaggeration has occasionally been known to be true, but in a generally expected scenario, the preliminary treatment would remove large objects such as rags or toys.

Preliminary treatment may also include such processes as communition, flow measuring, and pumping. Primary treatment is a physical process of suspended solids reduction by either sedimentation or fine screening. The sedimentation process uses gravity in a quiescent basin to settle out the solids, or a fine screen to block passage of solids. The solids, either settled or screened, are removed and processed further as part of the residuals management.

Secondary treatment is a biological process of enhanced biodegradation of sewage to reduce the biodegradable material within the sewage. The enhanced conditions for biodegradation include increased availability of oxygen, and an increased number of organisms in the treatment basin.

The organisms within the basins may be either suspended in the sewage or attached to a fixed media. Tertiary treatment may be either a chemical or biological process of phosphorus removal, ammonia removal, or other enhancement to remove sewage constituents such as solids or biodegradable material.

The removal of any remaining pathogenic organisms in a sewage effluent is the primary purpose of disinfection. The common processes used in disinfection are chlorination, ultraviolet radiation, and ozonation. These methods of disinfection operate on the principles of either direct oxidation of the pathogenic organisms (chlorination or ozonation) or mutation of the organism to kill it (ultraviolet radiation).

Residuals management involves a biomass reduction and disposal. The first stage in residuals management is to condition or stabilize the biomass by further biodegradation or digestion employing either an aerobic process (air supplied) or an anaerobic process (no air supplied). The second stage is to reduce its volume by removing the liquid from the biomass by either a physical process or a drying process. The stabilized biomass may also be disposed of directly by application to agricultural land, if it is available.

Biodegradation, in addition to sedimentation for solids reduction, is a fundamental process for any wastewater treatment process beyond primary treatment, and is an essential process to produce effluent quality appropriate to minimizing public health and environmental impacts.

Biodegradation is, however, significantly reduced by cold temperatures, which is an important factor for the performance of lagoon systems. Fortunately, there are bacterial called Psychrophiles, which are cold-loving, and have optimal temperature for growth at about 15°C or lower, and a maximum temperature for growth at about 20°C, and a minimal temperature for growth at 0°C. In the summer months the warmth and sunlight promote the greatest biodegradation activity in lagoon sewage treatment systems, and the systems must be operated accordingly. The general operating scenario for lagoons in cold regions is a 365 day retention followed by an annual decant.

During the winter months with the absence heat and sunlight, the primary process for sewage treatment in lagoons is sedimentation. Sedimentation is also influenced by the cold. Settlement

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velocity depends on the viscosity of the water it; increased water viscosity implies a slowing of the settling process by a factor of 1.75 for water at 1 C compared to water at 20 C. The science of wastewater management (treatment and disposal) in remotes areas, particularly northern regions, remains incomplete, and consequently the regulatory frameworks are not generally realistic. For example, the practice of just wastewater sampling has inherent problems in the north from the seemingly simple process of getting a water sample to "the lab", to the inability to represent a source environment in a laboratory conditions.

Applied Science of Wastewater Management Applied science is the process of taking the science and applying it to specific applications.

Thinking outside the “box” is necessary for applied science in remote communities in response to the challenges of extreme cold, very limited access, extraordinary costs, and scant resources.

These are a few of the “routine” challenges that engineers, as well as suppliers, contractors must face in designing and constructing wastewater treatment facilities for remote areas.

The applied science or "engineering" of wastewater systems in remote communities should follow the key principles of appropriate technology, community context, incremental improvement. These principles have been applied inconsistently to projects in remote communities, and consequently a significant number of projects are not meeting the performance expectations of the communities, and the regulatory authorities.

Appropriate technology suggests that whatever process is being applied for wastewater treatment must consider the biophysical context of the project site, which includes location, climate, landforms, and possibly the native vegetation. Cold weather and distance are the two major factors in the consideration of appropriate technology. Although engineering designs may take into account measures to prevent wastewater facilities from freezing, it is also prudent to design the means to “thaw” a facility in the event it does freeze; in fact it may be appropriate to state that it is not a matter of if the facility freezes, but when it freezes.

Distance is the second factor influencing appropriate technology. Remote communities, by definition, are located at a great distance from what would be considered the “normal” amenities available to a community. Consequently, the resources available for routine operation, and maintenance may not be available at the facility site, and may be not be available for days or more,and may cost extraordinary amounts of money to mobilize.

Appropriate technology for wastewater treatment in remote locations may in fact make use of the extensive cold and limited warmth. One particular application is the concentration of sewage biosolids through the freeze-thaw process, and subsequent composting through the limited summer months. This process is just beginning to be applied in the community of Iqaluit, Nunavut.

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The community context of a wastewater treatment process has some overlap with the biophysical context of “appropriate technology”, but it is specific to the built environment of a community.

A remote community of 100 people has a very different “community” in comparison to a remote community of 500 people. One would expect that the smaller community would have significantly less human resources for the project implementation as well as the operation and maintenance of any wastewater facility. The smaller community would also have less resources for the construction of a wastewater facility.

Incremental improvement to wastewater treatment is simply a remote context of the phrase that “Rome was not built in a day”. Project planning is an inherent part of any facility implementation, and in a remote context it is has been recognized that at least a 5 year cycle from planning through to project completion is needed. Year one of the cycle occupies consultation with the community. Many remote communities are aboriginal and consequently may a different cultural perspective on wastewater treatment. Efforts to consult and education communities on the benefits to wastewater treatment are sometimes difficult, but the return on this benefit is significant. Year two of the cycle occupies the technical activity of “engineering” the facility along with continuing community consultation. Years three and four occupy construction, which has a limited window of the year because of the material supply, and cold weather. Year five occupies the critical post construction period where the facility becomes operational; this period may in fact “make or break” the project because the community must take ownership of the functional, as well as the physical attributes of the project.

The other benefits of incremental improvements apply to the financial planning and community employment. A multi-year implemental allows the community to reduce the cash flow requirements, and provide longer term employment opportunities for the residents of the community.

Social Science of Wastewater Management The science and applied science of wastewater treatment are subjects that need more attention, but attention has been given to these important factors over the past several decades. The social science of wastewater management in remote communities has, however, received much less attention. Even the term “social science” may not be a particularly all encompassing phase to apply to “all of the other stuff” associated with wastewater management in remotes communities, but it is a start.

The social science associated with wastewater management in remote communities presents a multitude of challenges which include, administrative, financial, and human resources. Any remote community, regardless of size, has the need for a fully funded, fully staffed, and fully trained community administration; however, this is seldom the case.

The administrative challenges include multiple levels of government; limited resources; and changing rules. The multiple levels of government in remote communities may include several levels of local representing the aboriginal community, as well as the non-aboriginal community;

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the territorial government, as well as the land claim by the aboriginal community; and the federal government, which may have several departments working independently to represent their own mandates. In some communities the various levels of government may number 6 or more.

The resources available to communities have been a dynamic environment for remote communities over the past several decades. The “devolution” of responsibilities has been ongoing in response to demands for autonomy from some communities, as well as the downsizing of territorial governments. The devolution process has had varying degrees of success. The latest chapter in the Northwest Territories is the so-called “New Deal” which was implemented in 2007, and provides a block funding to all communities. Some communities are “running” with the opportunity and other communities are overwhelmed. The “New Deal” is a good example of the changing rules that remote communities must cope with. In spite of the best conceived and comprehensive “roll out” possible, the “New Deal” will fail in some communities, as this change in the rules, along with other changes associated with many other administrative aspects of the community, are beyond the community’s capacity.

The financial challenges include financial management; capital funding; and operation and maintenance funding. Financial management is a challenge for any community, and represent a continuing challenge for many remote communities. Every remote community has a community budget that is proportionately larger than what would normally be expected in a southern geographic context, and the financial management of this budget requires skill and training that many communities do not possess. Funds for capital, and operation and maintenance from the senior governments have diminished significantly over the past decade, and communities are being encourage to be more self sufficient for financial resources.

The human resources challenges include hiring staff; training staff; and retaining staff. Human resources may, in fact, be the most challenging aspect of the social science of wastewater management. People represent a very dynamic environment, which has been plagued with a chronic lack of resources for hiring, training, and retaining.

An eye opening example of the financial challenges faced by remote communities is presented with the operation and maintenance costs for water and sewer in the remote communities of Whati, in the Northwest Territories, and Grise Fiord in the Nunavut Territory; Grise Fiord is the northern most community in Canada.

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Figure 4. Location of Whati, NWT, and Grise Fiord, Nunavut

Table 1. Whati, NWT Operation and Maintenance costs Year Water$ Sewer $ Total$ 2001 167,800 71,900 239,700 2002 184,600 79,100 263,700 $580 per capita per year in 2002 or 2.3 cents per litre for water and sewer Water use: 11.5 million litres per year or 70 litres per capita per day Table 2. Grise Fiord, Nunavut Operation and Maintenance costs Year Water $ Sewer $ Total $ 2001 234,391 100,200 334,591 2002 255,959 109,696 365,655 $2,240 per capita per year in 2002 or 6.4 cents per litre for water and sewer Water use - 5,678,500 litres per year or 95 litres per capita per day In comparison the cost of water is 0.12 cents per litre in Edmonton.

Conclusions Lagoons have been the sewage treatment process of choice for most remote communities because of the cost effectiveness, simplicity of operation, and abundance of space available to most communities. This situation has been changing over the past decade as regulators have lobbied Water Boards, and pressured communities to improve effluent quality by applying conventional “southern” mechanical technologies.

This evolution has exhibited mixed results with “new” mechanical systems operating in the northern communities of Fort Simpson, Rankin Inlet, Iqaluit and Pangnirtung. Although it may be said that these systems are generally operating in compliance with the water licence parameters, the communities are faced with a legacy of sustaining these processes with limited

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financial and human resources. New challenges are emerging for these communities because of the demands for managing the significant biosolids waste stream produced by the waste treatment process.

The ecosystems of the remote regions of Canada are unique and fragile, and must be protected, hence the need for wastewater treatment. Public health must also be protected, and wastewater treatment must serve this purpose as well. However, to date, the protective measures for these ecosystems and public health have not been developed or implemented based upon the necessary science, applied science, and social science information.

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