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.
The GNWT’s department of Infrastructure has issued a 72 Hour Notice of Closure Caution for the Wekweètì and Gamètì winter roads. According to the public message posted Sunday afternoon, the roads “may close sooner with little to no notice.” Earlier this month, the Wekweètì and Gamètì winter roads were restricted to night travel only between 10 pm to 10 am.
While in-person On the Land learning continues to be central to Tłı̨chǫ language revitalization, the Tłı̨chǫ language division is looking at ways to engage with youth through new immersive platforms, like virtual spaces, that honour history and traditions. Danielle Dacanay with the Tłı̨chǫ Government’s Language Division emphasized that virtual resources are supplements to learning the language in the traditional way, they are not a replacement for it.
“100 youth projects wanted in French,” a new microgrant program wants youth to plant language learning seeds outside school. A network of action-research teams in Canada, other parts of North America, Africa and Europe is launching a youth grant stream to support French language engagement outside of conventional spaces. Youth across the country aged 14 to 30 are eligible for 100 microgrants in support of grassroots initiatives as part of this program run by the Dialogue Network.
Testing at another school site in the city of Yellowknife showed elevated levels of lead and copper in water present in some of its drinking taps. Earlier this month, testing showed four other school buildings in Yellowknife and a school in Behchokǫ̀ had elevated levels of both copper and lead in water. Since comprehensive testing of schools across the territory began this fall, 28 school sites out of 34 announced to date have tested positive for elevated levels of lead.
