Journal
2020
of the Northern Territories Water and Waste Association
Publications mail agreement #40934510
Public Health in the Arctic
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The Journal
Table of Contents
Message from the editor: Ken Johnson ........................................................................ 3 Improving health in the Arctic with access to household water................ 6 Water quantity and health in Coral Harbour households............................ 8 Potential permafrost pandemic....................................................................... 10 Neskantaga First Nation: Canada’s longest boil water advisory................13 Behchoko water and sewer activities............................................................. 16 Greenland: In the shadow of the Coronavirus.............................................. 18 Eek, Alaska gets running water........................................................................20 Nunavut water security...................................................................................... 22 Using satellites to help assess water quality in the Northwest Territories.............................................................................24
is published by DEL Communications Inc. Suite 300, 6 Roslyn Road Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada R3L 0G5 www.delcommunications.com President & CEO David Langstaff Editor-in-Chief Lyndon McLean lyndon@delcommunications.com Editor Ken Johnson ken.johnson@cryofront.com Sales Manager Dayna Oulion Toll Free: 1-866-424-6398 Advertising Account Executives BRENT ASTROPE brian gerow Ross James Mic PatersoN KARI PHILIPPOT
History of freeze protected water systems in the Canadian Arctic.........26 Fort McMurray wildfire emergency response...............................................29 NTWWA president’s report: Alan Harris..........................................................31
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS Harmsco Filtration Products.....................................................5
Arctic Blaster.................................................................................... 14
MACA.......................................................................................................11
Assiniboine Injections Ltd....................................................... 19
Mueller Co...........................................................................................22
Associated Engineering.............................................................23
Napeg....................................................................................................25
Aurora Freightliner...........................................................................3
Nexom................................................................................................... 19
AWI......................................................................................................... IFC
Nunatta Environmental Services Inc................................ 12
Bi Pure Water (Canada) Inc......................................................30
Reed Pipe Tools............................................................................... 31
Canadian Water Technologies Ltd.........................................7
Ron’s Auto Service Ltd & Equipment Rental................ 15
Delco Water........................................................................................24
Sanitherm / Clean Harbors..................................................... 19
Denso North America Inc........................................................... 9
Stantec.................................................................................................. 13
Dominion Divers............................................................................. 27
Terminal City Iron Works...........................................................28
duAlaska Incorporated.............................................................. 21
Urecon......................................................................................................7
Emco Waterworks...........................................................................17
Water Blast Manufacturing....................................................... 6
Exp Services Inc.............................................................................. 27
Yukon University........................................................................ OBC
Photos by Ken Johnson
Clockwise from top left: Self haul for household water in Neskantaga First Nation, Ontario; Water point in Newtok, Alaska; and handwashing in a Native Alaskan home.
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The Journal of the Northern Territories Water & Waste Association 2020
Creative Director Kathy Cable Layout SHAWN BENNETT
Aecom................................................................................................... 14
ON THE COVER
Production services provided by: S.G. Bennett Marketing Services www.sgbennett.com
© Copyright 2020, DEL Communications Inc. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without prior written consent of the publisher. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein and the reliability of the source, the publisherin no way guarantees nor warrants the information and is not responsible for errors, omissions or statements made by advertisers. Opinions and recommendations made by contributors or advertisers are not necessarily those of the publisher, its directors, officers or employees. Publications mail agreement #40934510 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: DEL Communications Inc. Suite 300, 6 Roslyn Road, Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada R3L 0G5 Email: david@delcommunications.com PRINTED IN CANADA 11/2020
Message from the editor
Ken Johnson
T
wenty years ago, the Government of the Northwest Territories initiated a program to upgrade water treatment plants to meet the requirements of the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality, and as of October 5, 2020, this goal has been achieved with the commissioning of a new water treatment plant in Wekweètì. Since 2001, partnerships between the Government of Canada, the Government of the Northwest Territories, and community governments have resulted in 23 upgraded water treatment systems. This is an outstanding achievement, and good news in a year that so much has changed. The Arctic is certainly used to change, but 2020 has presented a changing circumstance that some may have predicted, but no one could certainly have imagined. As northern water
professionals, we are all familiar with various aspects of public health, however the COVID circumstance has presented us with another significant layer to how we look at public health in the north. For this reason, the journal theme is public health, with views from Canada, Alaska, and Greenland. Even though the approach and the circumstances of water in each country varies, the issues of climate, geography, and resources present us all with the same challenges. The international perspectives presented through the Journal will continue to provide our water professionals with information that should inspire us to keep doing what we do, and possibly educate us on what we could do differently, which is so very important to the people of the Arctic. I would like to thank Pearl Benyk once again this year for her editorial and plain language review of the journal articles – this is
icing on the cake for my editorial activity of bringing the journal to press. If any readers would like to reach out to our international northern water peers, or if you have any comments on the Journal, do not hesitate to contact me at EXP (ken.johnson@exp. com or 780.094.9085, voice or text). Stay well in the coming year, and with some luck and some good public heath management, I hope to see you in Yellowknife in the fall of 2021. S
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5
Improving health in the Arctic with access to household water
Edited from a technical paper by Thomas W. Hennessy, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Alaska; and Jonathan M. Bressler, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services
T
he eight Arctic nations of the circumpolar Arctic are all considered developed, but several of these countries have a wide range of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure and are facing considerable development challenges with water and sanitation, especially in rural and remote communities. Data for the United States from June 2015 shows that, overall, approximately 99 per cent of homes (97 per cent for rural populations) in the entire United States have piped water service and 100 per cent of homes, including rural homes, have piped sanitation service. However, these national estimates mask the reality for many Americans, especially those in rural communities in Alaska, where significant numbers of homes do not have piped, in-home water and sanitation services. This is despite decades of effort to supply all Americans with piped water and sanitation services in their homes. Similar problems exist for data from Canada, Russia, and Greenland where Arctic WASH deficiencies are lost in the overall national numbers or are lumped into an overall rural category that does not provide an understanding of regional trends or deficiencies. Although the relationship between a safe, plentiful water supply and
health is well recognized, the historic focus of public health related to water service has been to prevent diarrhea-type illnesses caused by microbial contamination of drinking water. While preventing such waterborne infections remains a goal of improved access to high-quality water, access to adequate water quantity is also important for preventing ‘‘water-washed’’ diseases. Water-washed diseases are those where personal sanitation practices, for example hand washing, can prevent transmission of diseases to other people. This issue has become particularly relevant during the current COVID-19 pandemic. A study of rural Alaska homes without in-home water service showed the average water use was 5.7 litres per person per day. This amount would be categorized as a ‘‘very high health concern’’ because it is less than the 15 litres per person per day that is recommended for disaster response situations, such as refugee camps. Such limited access to water leads to water rationing, where the use of water for drinking and cooking is given higher priority than using water for personal hygiene. Limited access to household water is often found in homes with extreme crowding and many young children; these conditions result in increased spreading of “water-washed” infections and help to explain the high disease rates seen in many Arctic communities.
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Overall, the status of water and sanitation services among Arctic communities is not well documented. Available survey information states that in-home access to cold running water ranges from 56 per cent in Northern Greenland to over 99 per cent in Canada. Available survey information also states that regions having water that was sometimes unsafe to drink ranged from one per cent in Northern Greenland to 86 per cent in Nunavut. Available survey information, during the period of 2010 to 2014, states that 70 per cent of rural houses units in Alaska Native Villages had complete plumbing facilities, including running water provided to a sink, a flush toilet, and a shower or bath. Data on waterborne infectious diseases and outbreaks are typically reported by public health authorities in Arctic nations. Despite data limitations, overall drinking water quality in the Russian Arctic was found to be very poor with considerable contamination by chemical and biological agents, and high rates of waterborne infectious diseases. In contrast to waterborne infectious diseases, water- washed infectious diseases are typically not reported and tracked. This makes documentation of these infections difficult because a special effort is needed to collect and analyze the rates of infection. However, several studies have shown that increased access to water and sanitation services in the Arctic is associated with reduced risk of water-washed infectious diseases. In Alaska, lower rates of hospitalization or outpatient care visits for respiratory and skin infections is associated with increasing the number of homes of rural Alaska natives with piped water service. Infant hospitalization rates for lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) in this population are the highest in the United States − five times higher for all LRTI than for the general US infant population and 11 times higher
for documented pneumonia. In contrast, the rate of hospitalization for diarrhea-type infection was comparable to the general US population. This contradicting statistic is likely because safe drinking water is provided in nearly all villages, either by centralized distribution (piped) or decentralized distribution, where residents self-haul treated water from a water station (see cover photo). Diarrhea infections caused by waterborne diseases are not common because this water is safe to drink, but there is not easy access to enough water for cleaning and washing, which leads to rationing of water for these purposes and more respiratory infections. Serious bacterial infections are also water-washed diseases. A recent study of four Alaska villages was designed to see what would happen when these villages transitioned from self-hauled water and honey buckets to in-home running water and sewer service. The study showed a decrease in the number of clinic visits for diarrhea, respiratory disease, and skin infections after the installation of running water service. Although these studies indicate that there are more waterborne and water-washed infections among people living without in-home water and sanitation service, they do not provide a full view of the differences in health conditions associated with incomplete WASH services across the Arctic. Without information on the status of WASH services, and health indicators related to these services, regional progress towards water goals will be hard to assess. Also, without a summary of regional data, the opportunity is missed to compare different approaches for achieving improved health for Arctic residents and to develop best practices that fit the unique challenges of the Arctic. S
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Water quantity and health in Coral Harbour households
C
oral Harbour is an Arctic community located in Nunavut’s Kivalliq Region on Southhampton Island, north of Hudson Bay. In Coral Harbour, large families are common, as are multiple generations or extended families living together. Of the 205 private dwellings in the community, the reported average number of persons per household is four; however, the number of people residing in many homes in Coral Harbour may in fact be larger than this. Dwellings in Coral Harbour consist of single houses, semi- detached houses, and row houses. Generally, the single houses have 1,200-litre potable water holding tanks, although, depending on the age of the building, the tank size may vary. Household wastewater is stored in separate tanks and pumped out using vacuum trucks, which discharge the wastewater into a lagoon system. In most communities, both water supply and wastewater disposal pump-out services are provided daily or at least three days per week to each home. In order to reduce the incidences of gastrointestinal and skin diseases, homes in Nuna-
vut with trucked water service need to receive 90 litres per person per day, and if the homes have piped water supply, the average amount of water available is 225 litres per person per day. These levels of water delivery service, which are the amount of water delivered per person per day either by water trucks or by pipe, are based on research completed in the mid 1980s. This research looked at how often gastrointestinal and skin diseases occurred when people were able to use various amounts of water per person, per day. Based upon the research, 90 litres per capita per day was recommended and became policy for the amount for trucked water supply systems in the communities of the Northwest Territories, which included Nunavut at the time. Research shows that the health and wellbeing of family members is affected by various water-related factors. These factors include how many people are living in the household; how much water they are using; how often there are delays in the water delivery; how people deal with these delays;
Filling portable water storage tank in Coral Harbour.
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The Journal of the Northern Territories Water & Waste Association 2020
and how the shortage of water limits the ability of the household members to follow health and sanitation advice given by public health officials. Municipal water delivery in Coral Harbour is often inconsistent and delayed, so that households do not always have the amount of water they need. These water delays may be caused by winter weather, mechanical problems with the water reservoir pumps or delivery trucks, municipal holidays, and difficulties keeping the water operator positions filled. The ways residents deal with water delivery delays include collecting their own untreated water, or ice, from local rivers and lakes; relying on neighbours and extended family to share the water they have access to; and altering their daily activities based on whether or not they have the amount of water they need at the time they want it. There also remains the significant personal preference for collecting untreated water, regardless of any water delivery delay, because the untreated water tastes better, particularly for making tea.
Typical 1,200 litres potable water storage tank in a Coral Harbour house.
Edited from a technical paper by Kiley Daley, Heather Castleden, and Rob Jamieson, Dalhousie University; Chris Furgal, Trent University; and Lorna Ell, Coral Harbour Overcrowded living spaces in Nunavut communities are an important factor, and equally important may be how this relates to the provision of water. Another key health aspect of the ways people cope with the water delays or shortages is that certain sub-sections of the population are more likely than others to have poor health due to these delays and shortages. Water shortages and delays may be more than an inconvenience for some residents, and this may limit the ability of these residents to follow public health-related practices and routines. The Hamlet of Coral Harbour should be commended on their level of communication when dealing with water delays, especially their use of public messages to the community about water delays and requests that residents conserve water. The hamlet should also be commended for periodically hiring workers to harvest blocks of ice from nearby water sources for use by the community for preparing tea and other food preparation. Some older members of the community still prefer to use un-chlorinated water for certain uses. Distribution system challenges do exist and some households in Coral Harbour do not receive adequate quantities of munici-
pally delivered water. As a result, their health and well-being may be negatively affected if they cannot supplement their domestic water supply by other means. In particular, the consequences of shortages and interruptions are more serious in situations of overcrowded housing, and families with young children and households dealing with communicable infections. Essentially, housing inadequacies and the resulting water insecurity are causing health risks related to the transmission of infectious diseases. These community challenges related to the supply of water do not suggest that community-wide changes, such as the installation of a fully piped centralized system, is needed for the future. On the contrary, the existing trucked system generally provides the appropriate level of service in Coral Harbour. It has been reported that nearly 50 per cent of residents rarely run out of domestic water. Rather, other health determinants, such as adequate housing, improved health care systems, and individual behaviour should be considered as things which could improve the situation for those who do, or could, experience problems with the water supply. The water supply standard of 90 litres per
person per day was based on research that assumed conditions are all the same within Inuit communities and households. Future planning for water supply infrastructure, particularly things such as the size of household water tanks and the frequency of water delivery should take into consideration the unique social challenges that exist in individual Nunavut communities. Although the size of a water tank in a four-person public housing unit is the standard, the number of people living there is not. Water supply standards that are based on the actual number of occupants per household, and realistically achievable municipal water delivery schedules, may be more appropriate and accurate for some situations. While the standard level of service for water supply is adequate for some families, those living in overcrowded households are getting considerably less water per person than the water policy standard. Although some people in some sub-sections of the population are coping by getting water somewhere else, like sharing water with other households, water shortages are limiting their ability to follow public health standards and negatively impacting their overall well-being. S
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Potential Permafrost Pandemic Edited from articles by Jimmy Thomson, April 2020, and Zach Boren, July 2020 A veterinarian checks reindeer for deadly anthrax outside Yar-Sale town in the Siberian Peninsula.
A
s the Arctic warms, viruses and microbes frozen for hundreds, if not thousands, of years are rising from
the thawing ground. In response to this development, 50 scientists from around the world assembled in Hannover, Germany in November 2019 to discuss what is considered an emerging public health issue. The frozen earth that covers much of the Arctic is home to living microbial communities. For centuries, they had lain dormant,
barely active, or completely suspended, subsisting on minuscule pockets of water in between the layers of ice. With the Arctic warming at two to five times the global average rate, those pockets of water are becoming pools; the rivulets are becoming rivers, and the puddles ponds of the Arctic are waking up, and the microscopic organisms embedded in the land are coming back to life. The scientists meeting in Germany agreed
The recently discovered giant Pithovirus is seen replicating inside its host, before destroying it.
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The Journal of the Northern Territories Water & Waste Association 2020
that the climate is warming and the permafrost is thawing. However, they wanted to know what it all means for humans and the future of infectious diseases. In 2017, a team of Belgian researchers speculated about the threats to human health from microbes that were previously frozen in permafrost. They described that the permafrost is a gigantic reservoir of ancient microbes or viruses that may come back to life if environmental conditions continue to change and set them free. A research study has been able to resurrect two viruses which emerged from a single sample of 700-year-old caribou droppings. In 2014, scientists discovered a giant virus frozen in a 30,000-year-old ice core. Like a scene out of a sci-fi movie, the scientists thawed it and watched it take over an amoeba. This virus discovery suggests that thawing permafrost — as a result of global warming or industrial exploitation of circumpolar regions — might pose a threat to human and animal health. Viruses and microbes may also present another problem because they could contain the blueprints for resistance to antibiotics or other medicines. If given the chance, they could share that information with their modern relatives. These microbes may be referred to as “zombie” viruses and they make for attention-grabbing headlines. But for people living in the Arctic, infectious diseases that come from more mundane sources could pose a much greater threat. Climate change and human intrusions are changing the landscape, opening new ways for microbes to get around and infect animals and humans. New roads, new mines, and new drill-
www.nwtdrinkingwater.ca We know that drinking water is an important issue to Northwest Territories (NWT) residents and we want to clarify and explain how drinking water is made safe. This website includes information about drinking water in the NWT from source water to our tap. We want to provide information to residents that helps them feel conϐident in the water they drink every day.
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ing programs are bringing more people to the Arctic than ever before, just as the soil is beginning to offer a multitude of freshly virulent germs. Global warming is also inviting new species to move north, some of which are hosts for pathogens that can infect humans. Taking drinking water straight out of Arctic streams and lakes, a common practice in many places, is becoming more risky as beavers push farther into the North. Beavers are hosts to parasites like Giardia, which causes “beaver fever,” a painful, diarrhea-inducing abdominal sickness. Mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus are being found farther and farther north as well. This is adding stress to the limited medical resources in the Arctic. If wildlife is affected, humans can be affected, too. Diseases can jump from animals to humans and deplete the animal food sources people rely on. The thawing permafrost may be home to bacteria and viruses we haven’t yet encountered, or equally troublingly, ones that we have encountered in the recent past with
disastrous results, such as the Spanish flu or smallpox. As the Arctic heats up, a group of scientists are investigating the risk that deadly diseases from the distant past may return. For decades, only the Russians seriously investigated whether, and for how long, microbes could survive in the permafrost, but the wider scientific community is now taking note. At the meeting in Hannover, the participants came from all relevant fields of scientific study including climatology, geology, and virology. It’s important to understand that these mysterious microbes are frozen in the earth rather than in the polar ice sheets. Rising temperatures are increasing the depth of the permafrost’s “active layer”, which historically has varied from one to two metres in depth from the surface. For periods of the summer, this layer contains water instead of ice. The permafrost need not entirely thaw nor be thawed all year round for microorganisms now frozen in the earth to come to life or make their way to the talik — a
layer above the permafrost that is rarely, if ever, frozen. That active layer, ever larger and active for longer, becomes a new habitat, where an increase in unfrozen water is enough to activate some biological processes. In fact, these microbes may take the opportunity to move toward the talik, where it’s less likely to refreeze. Perhaps the most widely known outbreak of an Arctic disease was Anthrax, which is caused by a bacterium. There was an outbreak reported in 2016, and this outbreak killed thousands of reindeer in Siberia and infected around a dozen people. It’s not known whether the Anthrax bacteria emerged from the permafrost. Once unfrozen, these permafrost microbes must find a host to survive, but they have a problem because there aren’t many people living in these regions where they exist. Those people who do live in the area, often in indigenous villages, may not have frequent contact with outsiders, meaning the spread of infection would likely be limited to individual, widely separated communities. S
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The Journal of the Northern Territories Water & Waste Association 2020
Neskantaga First Nation: Canada’s Longest Boil Water Advisory Edited from an article by Kaycie Lane, University of Massachusetts, and Graham Gagnon, Dalhousie University
N
eskantaga First Nation is a remote Oji-Cree First Nation band government in northern Ontario, situated along the shore of Attawapiskat Lake in the District of Kenora, and 430 kilometres north of Thunder Bay. The community is connected to the rest of Ontario by a local airfield and by winter roads and ice roads to points south, via the Northern Ontario Resource Trail. The reported population of the community is 400 people. The Neskantaga First Nation community has been under a “boil water advisory” since 1995, when the water treatment plant failed. The situation gained national attention between 2004 to 2016, when Canadian news outlets began to cover the story about the unsafe water supply. In 2006, a plan was in place to complete repairs to the failed water treatment plant. However, this program was cancelled when the federal government changed. The water crisis at Neskantaga First Nation resulted in the shutdown of the community’s school, hundreds of evacuations, and the declaration of a state of emergency. The situation draws attention to a continuing and unacceptable problem in Canada: a lack of access to clean drinking water in Indigenous communities across the country. The crisis at Neskantaga First Nation was caused by a treatment failure due to a broken pump system, resulting in untreated water entering the water distribution system. These unaddressed operational concerns have resulted in a way of life that is unfamiliar to most Canadians. In too many First Nations communities, obtaining safe
Self haul for household water at Neskantaga First Nation. water is energy intensive, safety is not guaranteed, and people get sick from waterborne illnesses and skin rashes. Neskantaga First Nation has been under a boil-water advisory for 25 years and it is not alone. Long-term boil water advisories are currently in effect in 56 First Nations across Canada. This is something the federal Liberals have pledged to eliminate by 2021. While boil-water advisories are crucial, they leave many communities seeking short-term solutions that can be unreliable. Boil-water advisories are a water-management tool that represents a strong regulatory intervention in perceived or known emergency situations. There are two types of advisories contemplated by Health Canada: precautionary and emer-
gency. Precautionary advisories are issued due to operational concerns about a water system that may cause unsafe water delivery to consumers. Emergency advisories are issued when microbiological contamination is present in water. In both cases, emphasis is placed on preventing microbially-contaminated water from being consumed by a community. While an emergency advisory is an informative measure for communicating messages about acute water safety to consumers, the overuse and misuse of precautionary advisories is concerning. Precautionary advisories focus primarily on perceived operational matters affecting microbial risk. As a result, they provide a limited and skewed view of water safety, and do not commu-
The Journal of the Northern Territories Water & Waste Association 2020
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advisories in communities. In 2006, an expert panel recommended the formation of a First Nations Water Commission to meet the challenges faced by First Nations systems. This inspired a collaborative approach with the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs leading to the formation of the Atlantic First Nations Water Authority
Inside the non-operating water treatment facility at Neskantaga First Nation. nicate the wide range of issues that may impact public health. Studies have shown over 40 per cent of First Nations water systems have advisories in place due to operational concerns. A 2011 First Nations Water Report identified systemic, long-standing operational concerns. To overcome this situation will require dedicated financial, personnel and capac-
ity resources. A new approach for managing water and reducing risk to Indigenous peoples is needed to meet these significant challenges. Achieving safe drinking water in First Nations systems requires a multi-faceted approach focused on improving the underlying concerns about water systems, not temporarily removing drinking water
(AFNWA) in 2018. The first of its kind, water authority is dedicated to sustainability by providing safe water to communities for generations and is focused on addressing the root causes of drinking water advisories, not just removing advisories in the short term. Water governance in Indigenous communities has suffered from a lack of clear regulatory guidance, including Indigenous perspectives and beliefs. Without proper engagement, water treatment design in Indigenous communities has not taken community goals for water operations and aligned them with the current best practices in the water industry. For example, the lack
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AFNWA is a long-term education plan for Indigenous water professionals to govern, manage and operate water systems. As the Neskantaga First Nation story illustrates, the current approach has resulted
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SERVING EVERY COMMUNITY IN THE NWT & NUNAVUT FOR OVER 40 YEARS
Behchoko water and sewer activities
By Galvin Simpson, Public Works Manager, Tlicho Community Government of Behchoko
Galvin Simpson (pictured) has a busy summer with maintenance activities on the water and sewer systems serving the community of Behchoko, formerly known as Rae-Edzo.
A hydrant test is organized for one of the community’s hydrant access vaults, incorporating a length of hose, a pressure gauge and a flow diffuser.
Addition of enzyme to the sewage lagoon to improve the biological activity, and hence treatment, in the lagoon.
Arrival at Surveillance Network Program (SNP) sampling point E3.
Repairing a service connection leak in the water distribution system – the leak was found the “old fashioned” way by following the stream of water of the leak from where it surfaced.
16 The Journal of the Northern Territories Water & Waste Association 2020
Access vault inspection underway with condition assessment and steam cleaning.
Hiking to one of the sampling points in the Surveillance Network Program (SNP) for the sewage lagoon, as part of the water licence compliance for Behchoko.
Behchoko hydrant test underway.
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Bagged sewage pick up in Greenland.
Greenland: In the shadow of the Coronavirus
By Kare Hendriksen, Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmar; and Ken Johnson, Planner and Engineer, EXP | Arctic
W
hile Denmark is severely challenged by COVID-19, Greenland has successfully managed to maintain a low infection rate. A major accomplishment has been that the first wave of the infection was confined to the capital city of Nuuk, which has a good hospital and good water and sanitation system. However, outside of Nuuk, Greenland is challenged by the fact that 10 per cent of the population has no running water and must haul the water themselves, and a quarter must use honey buckets for human waste. So if the infection spreads outside Nuuk, it could quickly have severe consequences, not least because healthcare resources outside Nuuk are – at best – limited.
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With only 56,000 inhabitants on the island, spread over 71 settlements, Greenland is a country that is geographically similar to Central Europe, but with a north-to-south distance equivalent to the distance between from Bergen, Norway to the north coast of Africa. For the health service, this poses some obvious logistical challenges. With very limited healthcare resources available in the smaller communities, patients who need to be admitted to hospital are often medevaced to the nearest regional hospital. In most of the more serious illnesses or accidents, patients must be medevaced to Nuuk. This can take a day of travel from many parts of the country, and this medical travel is often hampered by weather.
The Journal of the Northern Territories Water & Waste Association 2020
Even with these limitations, the Greenlandic health system has generally succeeded in ensuring a good state of health in the country. However, COVID-19 has spread outside of Nuuk and the system is being taxed, and in the event of an infection boom, Greenland’s six respirators will not go very far in meeting the need. With Greenland’s health system, prevention of the spread of infection is crucial. Denmark’s non-proliferation strategy is based on keeping social distancing, hygiene, and frequent hand washing. However, in the households of Greenland’s smaller communities, many people live in small houses where proper hygiene is a challenge. Ten per cent of the population does not have indoor plumbing and must obtain water by travelling to one of the “tap houses” in the community, and water use by these residents is less than 30 litres per person per day. Another 10 per cent have access to trucked water delivery, but this water supply is also limited. In fact, because of water supply restrictions, there are 10 communities where the average daily water consumption is 10 to 15 litres per capita per day. In addition, there are three communities without any water supply, where the residents collect water from a steam in the summer and melt snow in the winter. In comparison, the water use in Denmark is 120 litres per capita per day. Thinking that Greenland can only prevent the spread of COVID-19 for a significant part of the population through frequent hand washing is an illusion. The fact that almost a fifth of Greenland’s population doesn’t have access to running water in the home is a product in part due to the Danish modernization of Greenland after the Second World War. In the post-war years, Denmark was under pressure from other countries to decolonize and modernize Greenland and open the country’s economy. Greenland was poor, and because of the miserable housing conditions for most of the population, tuberculosis was so widespread that it caused one-third of all deaths. Something had to be done and the challenge was great. In response, the Greenland Technical Organization (GTO) was established to coordinate the construction of
housing and infrastructure in the coming decades. From a governance perspective, Greenland became a colony of DenmarkNorway in 1775 and it became an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark in 1979, and now has widespread self-government. Denmark also wanted to develop Greenland’s economy so that it would become self-sustaining and, in the long run, profitable to the inhabitants. Therefore, efforts were made to streamline and develop cod fishing, which was seen as the future sustainable economic foundation, and it was the Danish plan to relocate the majority of the population to the open water villages on the southwest coast, where the ocean did not freeze during the winter. Investments were made primarily in these fast-growing southwest coastal communities, and in most of these communities, residential blocks were built that required water supply and sewerage. In the following decades, water and sewerage networks were gradually expanded to include some of the other homes in
Bagged sewage disposal in Greenland. these communities. However, much less infrastructure investment was made in the “outer districts” because the Danish Greenland administration wanted to motivate people to move to the larger communities. It is not known how much the inadequate water supply and honey bucket toilets affect the state of health in Greenland, but there is no doubt that it is important influence. From the beginning of the 1990s when the increase of tuberculosis incidences was fully documented, there have been around 50 new cases per year. According to Statistics Greenland, 25 tuberculosis deaths have been recorded
in the period from 2004 to 2013. Studies in other Arctic regions indicate that limited access to water and the use of honey bucket toilets play a significant role in community health. In these Coronavirus times there is the potential danger of the spread of infection in Greenland running out of control and causing many deaths. Denmark should take the initiative and help to complete the establishment of water supply and wastewater management systems that are long overdue. This would correct the government’s mistake made 75 years ago of trying to relocate communities for the benefit of the government and not for the people. S
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Eek, Alaska gets running water Edited from an article by Anna Rose MacArthur
E
ek is a Yup’ik village with a population of approximately 450 people of which 98 per cent are Native Alaskan (Yup’ik). Eek is located beside the Eeayarak River approximately 30 kilometres from the Bering Sea, and approximately 660 kilometres west of Anchorage. Eek is mainly a boardwalk community, with only one dirt road connecting the airfield with the rest of town. It has a United States Post Office, a Yukon-Kuskokwim health clinic, and the Iqfijouaq Company store. In 2019, the residents of Eek transitioned from individually hauling their water and sewer along the boardwalk system in the community to and from their homes to a piped system with faucets and flush toilets. Before having piped water, Eek residents could get treated water from the community watering point, paying a 25 cents for every 15 litres. Most homes also collected rainwater in summer and river ice in winter.
Formerly, a bathroom consisted of a basin and a toilet. The toilet was a honey bucket − a five-gallon bucket with a seat, lined with a trash bag. Having it near the door made taking it outside to dump easier. With the new system, there’s a bathroom complete with a sink, shower, bath, and flushing toilet in every home. When people don’t have to haul every litre of the water they use to their house, they use more of it. Instead of everyone reusing the same basin of water to wash their hands, they can turn on a faucet and each person can wash in clean water. They can clean the house and wash dishes more often. They can also take showers and do laundry at home instead of at the community washeteria. For Eek, a piped system was a huge step forward because in Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskowkim Delta Region, 40 per cent of the homes do not have running water, except for nearby Bethel, Alaska, which has 1,700 residences.
Boardwalk system in Eek, Alaska for getting around the community.
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The Journal of the Northern Territories Water & Waste Association 2020
The project in Eek began with working with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium to identify funding for the project from a combination of federal and state money. The fundamental argument for the system was that when running water and sewer is introduced to a community, communicable disease infection rates drop. In one study of rural Alaskan communities, the construction of a piped sewer and water system resulted in a decline of 16 per cent in the number of clinic visits for respiratory infections, and declines of 20 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively, for skin and gastrointestinal infections. Families have also observed that, with running water, young children are not coughing as much and not getting sick as often. This is attributed to an increase in everyday handwashing and not reusing the water. Water quality is important, but so is water quantity. Rural Alaskan homes without running water tend to use about five litres of water
Service connection installed to home in Eek, Alaska.
per person per day. The World Health Organization classifies this amount as a “very high” health concern. Meanwhile, the average American with running water uses over 500 litres of water per day. The largest use of American household water is for flushing toilets. People growing up in Eek were taught by elders that water should be conserved. This contributed to the extraordinarily low water use. The transition to a piped water and sewer system has also required education to change the water use habits that have come down from the elders. Many residents of Eek still prefer to brew coffee and tea with rainwater, saying that it tastes better than with the chlorinated water that comes out of the tap. This water preference may not change soon, but the availability of piped water and sewer has changed the public health picture in Eek and other communities in Alaska recently and for the far future. S
Water and sewer piping to be installed in Eek, Alaska.
Aerial view of Eek, Alaska with sewage lagoons in the lower left.
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Nunavut water security Edited from a technical paper by Andrew Medeiros, Dalhousie University; Michael Bakaic, York University; and Sonia Wesche, University of Ottawa
F
reshwater ecosystems are an essential part of the natural and built environments of the Arctic and provide clean drinking water for Arctic communities. This water supply relies on the unique Arctic terrain, with its shallow lakes, streams, and wetlands that are partially formed by the permafrost, which prevents water from soaking into the ground. Climate warming is melting the permafrost, which is drastically changing the nature of some Arctic lakes, streams, and wetlands.
Along with these changes are emerging shifts in the beginning and end of the seasons, along with changes in the amount of precipitation, resulting in less snow and ice cover. Arctic ecosystems are influenced a lot by the changes in the seasons, which control the water these ecosystems need. Watersheds in the Arctic historically received relatively small amounts of run-off during the dry summers because of the small amount of rain in the Arctic desert
Thaw in active layer which eventually caused an entire lake to drain in the Northwest Territories.
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environment. Most streams flow only during the short spring thaw season, as a result of with the spring snow and ice melt. Therefore, the amount of winter snowfall is critical for re-filling and sustaining Arctic lakes and ponds. Late melting snow is critical for both the aquatic and terrestrial environments. If regions experience particularly dry conditions, especially due to lower amounts of snow, a significant loss of moisture by evaporation can occur. It has been seen that some high Arctic lakes are now are completely drying up during the summer season for the first time in thousands of years. The health and sustainability of aquatic systems depend on the ground conditions, which are in turn influenced by the permafrost conditions. The depth of the soil’s active layer, which develops annually with the thawing of the permafrost, controls the amount of space in the soil in which subsurface water can flow and move into drainage systems. In other words, a deeper active layer means less surface water in an area. The permafrost layer is the most influential part of the Arctic water cycle. Increased air temperatures are causing higher
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The Journal of the Northern Territories Water & Waste Association 2020
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soil temperatures that melt the areas of discontinuous permafrost. These are areas where there are patches or areas where the permafrost is not at the same depth from the surface due to different conditions at the surface, such as areas of shade or areas where the sun’s heat can more easily warm the soil. The southern edge of permanent permafrost is also moving further north, which is resulting in increased vegetation as the depth of the active layer increases. This reduces surface water flow as more water can seep into the increasing active layer, which can hold more water. The increasing active layer means that a larger portion of the surface water and surface runoff is entering the soil, potentially causing landslides as the flowing water in the ground destabilizes sloped areas. Some small lakes, and most Arctic ponds, exist only because the permafrost separates them from the seasonal sub-surface water system. Climate projections indicate that a gradual increase in the depth and spread of the seasonal active layer will result in the disappearance of Arctic wetlands. It has been observed that permafrost thaw is also a factor in the complete drainage of Arctic lakes and ponds. It’s expected that these lake and pond systems that are created by permafrost will have an increasing influence on permafrost degradation as their water levels decrease. This will happen more and more as temperatures increase and the permafrost thaws. Basically, when water and permafrost interact, water ultimately wins. Reductions in water levels in lakes and the amount of water flowing in rivers will ultimately affect the drinking water available to communities in the Arctic because most communities get their water from surface water systems. Across Nunavut, all the communities use surface water supplies, and in the Northwest Territories, all but one community (Wrigley) uses a surface water supply. Associated with the decrease in amount of water available to communities is a potential change in water quality, and this concern influences the perceptions of community residents about their environment, and the way they use water resources in their daily lives. Residents of
many Arctic communities commonly drink untreated water directly from a variety of natural sources, including lakes, streams, and rivers in summer, and from lake ice, icebergs, snow, and multi-year sea ice in the winter. For Arctic communities, increasing populations, limited and aging infrastructure, limited technical and financial capacity, and the high costs of constructing and maintaining water infrastructure are making communities more likely to have inadequate water supplies in a warming future. Environmental change means water quantity and quality issues will be among the most important concerns as the Arctic warms. The combined results of increased evaporation of freshwater supplies, decreasing water quality due to permafrost melting, increased development, and contamination left behind by development activity, such as mines, and other activities will have a serious impact on many aspects of northern life. Indigenous peoples over the centuries have demonstrated a capacity to adapt to changing conditions. However, the accumulated and increasing pressures on freshwater resources challenge the efforts being made to improve community sustainability. The link between food security and water security is clear, and access to sustainable and clean freshwater resources has
Changing ground flow in the Arctic with thaw in the active layer – seasonal flow penetrates much further into the ground creating unstable ground conditions and opportunity for much greater flows to occur
not received the attention it critically requires. Freshwater management policy and planning are currently limited in Nunavut, and future development pressures and climate warming will only make it more likely that the ability of northern residents to have easy access to clean freshwater will be endangered. Conclusions about the sustainability of future water resources differ somewhat from study to study because of inaccuracies in the climate models. However, it is important that plans for managing and adapting to changes in freshwater resources be developed and applied so that Arctic communities will have the quality and quantity of water necessary for the communities to flourish in the future. S
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Using Satellites to Help Assess Water Quality in the Northwest Territories
By Bing Yue, John Bennett and Michael Henschel, Centre for Cold Oceans Resources Engineering (C-CORE)
I
n 2012, the Centre for Cold Oceans Resources Engineering (C-CORE) at Memorial University started monitoring water temperature and the amount of sediment in rivers in the Northwest Territories (NWT) from space. With support from the Canadian Space Agency, C-CORE collected and analyzed satellite pictures and made measurements in the rivers to help understand the river ecosystems. The monitoring program relied on both space-based technology and residents to track and confirm the assessments. Over the past several decades, resource development in the upstream portion of the Slave River and Mackenzie River watersheds has increased. Human activity in agriculture, pulp and paper manufacturing,
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and energy development (oil, gas, and coal) have been identified by northerners as concerns in environmental change. To address these concerns, C-CORE work has focused on continuous monitoring of northern river systems. Water temperature, one of the key indicators of the health of the river system, changes the natural cycle of evaporation, as well as the oxygen in the water, which affects the aquatic life. The amount of sediment in the water also affects the nutrients in the water, the penetration of light into the water, and the pollutants within the river system. While the sediment in the water can enhance the productivity of a river delta, large increases in sediment in the rivers can block channels normally used by fish. The use of space-
The Journal of the Northern Territories Water & Waste Association 2020
based imaging satellites supports the continuous monitoring of the rivers, which may be used to evaluate the impacts of industry on the river systems. Water surface temperature and the amount of sediment in the river can be estimated using satellite images. Old and new data is available from the satellite systems of NASA and the European Space Agency. Information from space is the most useful when it is accessible to people, and therefore the C-CORE created Internet tools to provide these water measurements that were collected. The tool is available for free at https://www.looknorthservices.com/ watermonitoring. The water surface temperatures retrieved using LANDSAT satellite images on
the Slave River is presented in the figures below. The satellite temperature estimates were confirmed with water temperature readings at seven different locations. The LANDSAT images presented in remaining figure were collected in the open water season of 2011 in the Slave River Delta region. From the image analysis, it is notable that the water colour variation in the open water areas on the images is related to the amount of sediment in the water. Linear models between the amount of sediment in the water and water reflectance values were shown to have a direct mathematical relation in the C-CORE study. The mathematical models from the CCORE study are available for free to the public through the Internet. C-CORE provides archived and real-time water surface temperature and information on the
amount of sediment in the water. The Internet portal also provides the ability to select temperature data using an interactive
timeline tool. As well, historical trends at selected locations on the river can also be presented in an image. S
Satellite image of the Slave River Delta near Fort Resolute showing river sediment on various dates of a year
Thermal satellite image of Slave River identifying a water temperature in the river of approximately 14° C.
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NAPEG Thermal satellite image of Slave River identifying a water temperature in the river of approximately 19° C.
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Wood stave piping in Dawson City Yukon, circa 1970
History of Freeze Protected Water Systems in the Canadian Arctic
By Ken Johnson, Planner and Engineer, EXP | Arctic
T
he use of piped water distribution systems in the Canadian Arctic is a century-old practice that began with an installation in Dawson City, Yukon in 1905. The Dawson City system was very rudimentary, but the fundamental practices of freeze protection by heating the water and bleeding the water were used. Heating was accomplished by running a parallel steam pipe system beside the water system, which continuously provided a heat source for the wood-stave pipe. The bleeding was done with a constant discharge of the water system into the adjacent Yukon River. The next significant piped water distribution system in the Arctic was constructed for the mining community of Yellowknife in 1950. In the 45 years since the Dawson City system was built, considerable im-
provements were made in freeze protection practices. The Yellowknife water system employed a circulating water system, with provision for heating. A 200-millimetre (mm) iron header fed the system from an intake pumphouse, and the flow was divided into 150 mm branching water lines, with a 100 mm water line that returns to the main line to provide recirculation flow. Each house had a 12 mm service connection that looped from the 150 mm lateral returning to the 100 mm return lateral. The return line connection had a small hole to generate continuous circulation. All pipelines were buried with a minimum soil cover of 1.5 metres, as a freeze protection measure, and the pipes were also insulated using local moss. The establishment of the new town of Inuvik in 1960 − to replace the flood-prone
26 The Journal of the Northern Territories Water & Waste Association 2020
community of Aklavik − had a similar type freeze protected system as that used in Yellowknife. However, because of the thawsensitive permafrost, a decision was made to install the system in an above-ground linear box system that became known as a “utilidor”. The piping was asbestos cement, and the system was a recirculating one, with heat supplied by connecting to the high-pressure district-heating system that was located in the same utilidor “box” as the water and sewer piping. Iqaluit’s original water system copied the system in Inuvik, with an above-ground utilidor using asbestos cement piping. This system also used water tempering, water recirculation, and water bleeding to protect the system from freezing. The construction of the Astro Complex in Iqaluit was the first major development needing a
water supply. Astro Hill Complex was connected to the water distribution system with an above-ground utilidor that originated from the water treatment plant at Lake Geraldine. Substantial residential growth occurred in Iqaluit in the 1970s, and the Territorial Government decided to extend the piped water system. This growth initiated the introduction of buried service lines, which provided the benefit of avoiding the exposure to the extreme cold at the ground surface. The new buried service installed to service the residential growth also introduced improvements in pipe and manhole materials. All the “modern” provisions incorporated into the design of water systems in the Canadian Arctic were in place at the end of the 1970s. These modern materials included buried high-density, urethane-insulated polyethylene piping, which was installed as a looped system with water reheating and recirculation. In the mid 1980s, another substantial expansion of the piped water system in Iqaluit was installed. This expansion saw the in-
troduction of the metal “access vault” as a replacement for concrete manholes. These structures provided better separation between servicing systems and the were easier to install. The commissioning was also less challenging because the access vaults could be tested before shipment from the factory in the south. In the 1990s, the system layouts for recirculation, even for pipe sections that could not easily be looped, were standardized with water pipes looping back on themselves in some cases. The modest increase in cost for the “double piping” of the recirculation loop was offset by benefits such as the ability to reverse the flow in the return line when additional flow is required to fight a fire, and providing a back up system water supply by using the return line as a supply line in the event that the main line fails. The watermains were also deep enough that the seasonal temperature variations that the system was subjected to were small. Since 1990, the nuts and bolts of the water systems the Arctic systems have
been aging, so replacement work has been underway. Part of this work has been the installation of a reliable and accurate flow measurement and monitoring, which has become considerably cheaper. While good quality flow measurement/monitoring equipment was available pre -1990, it was extremely expensive and, as a result, was not commonly used in Arctic water systems. In water systems that rely on flow or recirculating flow to provide freeze protection, flow monitoring is critical. The ability to install alarms that warn of loss of flow, or to start standby pumping in event of a loss of flow, have both improved system reliability and simplified the lives of operations staff. The second major technological advancement has come with improvements in communications technology. Earlier systems may have relied on something as simple as a passerby noticing that the red beacon on the outside of a panel or building was on. Telephone, cell phone, satellite, and/or internet-based communications systems now provide both continuous
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equipment monitoring and alarm triggering in the event of abnormal conditions in heating or circulating freeze protection systems. Modern electronics have also allowed for optimization in the control systems (for example, operating the systems closer to zero degrees Celsius, which saves on energy for reheating). The number of communities with piped water systems has not expanded a great deal, however a handful of communities have received “core” community water systems that service just the larger water users in the centre of the community such as schools. These systems were developed without any plans for expansion because of the high capital cost of buried systems compared to trucked systems. Another factor is ground movement resulting from permafrost changes, which is very hard on buried pipelines and shortens the life of the systems. As the impacts of climate change unfold, Buried High Density Polyethene (HDPE) water and sewer pipes, with recirculation line, between steel access vaults in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.
factors such as ground movement are only becoming worse. S
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Burned out neighbourhood in Fort McMurray after wildfire.
Fort McMurray WiLdfire Emergency Response Edited from an article by Stephen Weninger, Stantec
I
n May 2016, a wildfire swept into Fort McMurray, Alberta, destroying 2,000 homes and prompting the largest fire
evacuation in Canadian history. The community of 88,000 remained evacuated for a month, during which time the fire melted the water and sewer connections, flooded the basements of the burned-out homes, and filled the sewers with debris. The Fort McMurray biological wastewater treatment plant also failed, and smoke damaged the filters on electrical equipment in lift stations, and ash, gravel, and debris from the fire threatened to plug the wastewater and storm sewers. The assessment, repair, and return to service of the community’s infrastructure required a herculean effort under very demanding circumstances by personnel in operations, emergency management, construction, and engineering.
Normal inflow and infiltration in the sewer system, plus damaged water service lines in the burned areas, allowed water to flow freely into the sewer system. The average daily flow before the fire was approximately 25 million litres per day. During the time the community was evacuated, the flow only dropped to approximately 15 million litres per day, even though the community was completely empty except for fire fighters, emergency responders, and a few critical support personnel. Making matters worse, that 15 million litres per day was clear water which means that the organic material needed to “feed” the wastewater treatment plant was zero. In fact, the wastewater flowing into the wastewater treatment plant was so clear that it met the approved levels required for water leaving the plant after treatment.
The clear water and reduced flow were caused by water flowing unimpeded into the basements of burned-out houses and then right into the sanitary sewer. Operators couldn’t isolate household water services and distribution lines to shut them off because the drawings that recorded the original construction of the water supply system were not accurate enough to locate the valves to turn off the flow. This high flow of clear water, combined with the lack of the nutrient-rich organic matter normally entering the wastewater treatment plant, was devastating to the biological process normally taking place in the plant. Although the wastewater finally leaving the plant continued to meet the levels of total suspended solids, ammonia, and biochemical oxygen demand that the plant had approval to discharge, the mass of bacteria or
The Journal of the Northern Territories Water & Waste Association 2020
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biomass needed to treat the wastewater in the plant was dying off quickly. Although the plant biomass wasn’t fed for a month, the water exiting the wastewater treatment plant never exceeded the levels of contaminants it was licensed to release. In the first few weeks after the fire, the water coming into the treatment plant in fact was as clean as the water leaving the treatment plant was required to be because there were no toilets contributing to the water entering the plant. As the four-day time period when Fort McMurray’s residents would be coming back to the community approached, it was critically necessary to prepare for this as the wastewater treatment plant would have to handle a rapid increase in wastewater while still fulfilling the legal requirements the plant had to meet. The expectation of 88,000 people returning to their homes in a short period of time created an urgency and a realization by the plant operators, consultants, and regulators that the return to normal operations would not be easy to achieve. To
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kickstart the recovery process, two loads of thickened biomass were delivered from the wastewater treatment plant in Red Deer, Alberta, a seven-hour drive away. The first delivery happened a week before the residents returned in order to re-establish biological activity in the treatment plant and confirm the plant’s effectiveness. The second delivery was on the day before the first residents arrived home so that it would boost biological activity in the plant in time for the increase in wastewater flowing into the plant. Throughout all the challenges encountered at the plant, which included the community evacuation, the heavy increase in water passing through the plant, and the residents returning to their homes, the facility was always in compliance with the regulations it is required to meet. Inspections and coordinated repairs were also completed on 13 sewage lift stations and another two wastewater treatment plants in the vicinity of Fort McMurray. The observations made during the recovery of the various wastewater systems
The Journal of the Northern Territories Water & Waste Association 2020
may be of value for future emergency planning. Firstly, the diesel generators that were used to back up lift station operations remained in service all during the emergency. Natural gas generators went out of service because the gas distribution system either failed or was shut down. It is preferable that a service (such as electricity) not be used to provide another service (such as natural gas). Secondly, trees growing close to a facility pose a great danger as flames in these trees can easily leap onto the roofs. There was only limited fire damage to some of the Fort McMurray facility buildings. However, at some of the facilities, where trees had been allowed to grow really close to the buildings, the flames had no trouble spreading onto the roofs. The Fort McMurray wildfire event was a catastrophic experience for the community, though the coordinated efforts of all levels of government and the resources which were available to them, provided the support necessary to respond to the emergency. S
NTWWA President’s Report
Alan Harris
G
reetings! How have you all been? I hope you are staying healthy and safe. I know that during this time you are being bombarded with news about COVID-19 and it’s hard to escape. It is everywhere, and it’s hard to take your mind off it. I want to thank all of you for helping to flatten the curve by properly social distancing and being mindful of your own health and others’ around you. If you’re involved as an essential worker, as I know many of you are, thank you for what you are doing. Thanks to everyone who joined us in Iqaluit last year for our annual NTWWA Conference, Tradeshow, AGM and Operators’ Workshop. We had a good conference, with 94 people in attendance and good participation in the Operators’ Workshop. Most who completed evaluations gave it a high rating, and the presentations and information shared, along with networking opportunities, were great. We had a small vendor turnout, but a big thank you to the organizations that did participate. Thanks to Kurt Stogrin for putting together the Operators Workshop Lab course material and Mike Korpan for presenting it. There were good exercises in testing procedures and proper use of testing equipment. The reason for Water Licence Inspections and sampling
Announcement
requirements was talked about along with differences between some of our communities’ raw water sources. Information was provided on Nunavut’s move forward on operator training and certification, a positive step forward for the region. Tours arranged in Iqaluit seemed to be enjoyed by all who joined in. We had a look behind the scenes of the Iqaluit Aquatic Centre and the Nunavut Brewing Company. Both are great tours with some interesting information. Unfortunately, due to the ongoing virus threat and continued travel restrictions, the NTWWA was forced to cancel this year’s annual event. Our current board, with the support of the members at the recent virtual AGM, will remain in their board positions until elections can be held next year. Thanks to Rob Osbourne once again, who has been re-appointed as executive director, and to our administrator Pearl Benyk. My thanks to Ken Johnson for continuing to put this journal together. This is currently about our only means of sharing good northern water and waste information. I also want to thank the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Government of Nunavut for their continued support. The NTWWA is hoping to hold the 2021 event in Yellowknife, where the 2020 event had originally been planned. I hope to see many of you there. S
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