Yellowknife’s new water treatment plant opened its doors to visitors for the first time on Monday.
The facility cost a fraction over $30 million to build and began operations this summer, just in time to end a weeks-long boil-water advisory across the city.
Such advisories should be a thing of the past as the new facility boasts an advanced water filtration system.
Moose FM took this photo tour with city staff.
Superintendent Scott Gillard and director of public works Chris Greencorn gave Moose FM a tour.The facility can handle 20 million litres of water per day, and could support more than 30,000 people.At the heart of the facility are new water filters, or membranes, which do a much better job of cleaning the city’s water than was previously the case.Scott Gillard holds up an example of the new water filtration system.Water passes through this filter, which helps to remove particles as tiny as one micron (one thousandth of a millimetre).Gillard believes the new filtration system makes boil-water advisories a thing of the past.These tanks contain sodium hypochlorite. This chemical replaces chlorine in the water cleaning process and is said to be a safer solution.The facility employs three staff and costs around $1.3 million to run each year. Testing of the water supply can be performed on-site.This instrument tests for turbidity, or how much silt and debris is in the water. (When Moose FM toured the facility, turbidity was at around 0.012 NTU. For context, the 2003 boil-water advisory in Yellowknife saw turbidity approach 50 NTU.)These screens are part of the small control centre in one corner of the building, from which operators can inspect the entire system.The next question for Yellowknife is where its water comes from. This is the view from the facility, looking out over Yellowknife Bay. The city could decide to draw water directly from the bay when its old pipe to Yellowknife River comes up for replacement, in the near future.If the city decides to pump water from Yellowknife Bay, contamination from the toxic remnants of nearby Giant Mine will be a concern. This bland corridor could form part of a new arsenic treatment installation if the city decides to go ahead with it.
Festival de poésie arctique Mots dans la taïga at École Allain St-Cyr returned to Yellowknife this week. The "Boreal magic" of the poetic trail is a space of living language and transformation. More than one hundred students created the hundreds of abrimots that are on the ground, in the trees and tucked into hideaway corners of the snowbanks along the trail. Students from Yukon also contributed along with community members from across the North.
GNWT's Department of Infrastructure has closed the Mackenzie Valley Winter Road: Wrigley - Délı̨nę Junction. On Wednesday afternoon, the Edzo-Rae Ice Road saw a planned seasonal closure. The planned closure was announced earlier this week and is part of seasonal changes that will also see the Dettah Ice Road close later this month.
Quebec/NWT team, the Fjord Witches - Ragadass has done it again, offiically capturing the hearts of Snowkings' Symposium voters with their breathtaking snow sculpture “Souffle de vie/ Breath of Life.” The team takes the top spot of this year’s Snow Carving Symposium Peoples’ Choice awards.
Yellowknifers are gearing up for the Great Ptarmi Hunt this weekend on the Frame Lake trail. As one longtime Yellowknifer Andrew Brohart put it, ptarmis are pint-sized plush ptarmigans—”Yellowknife’s very own twist on the Easter egg hunt.” “100 Ptarmis will be hidden along the Framelake Trail from the Pool to the Legislative Assembly,” said organizers.
The second wave of artists for this year’s Folk on the Rocks Festival has been released.
The greatest party under the midnight sun is once again bringing together artists from across the North and beyond to deliver their most dynamic festival yet.
With performances spanning genres from hip-hop, rock, folk, RnB, to electronica, there’s something for everyone at this year’s festival.
