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.
Flood and wildfire preparedness planning activities are beginning across the territory. Hay River’s Local Emergency Management Organization is bringing emergency preparedness information resources, including a preparedness brochure mailed out this week to households. Jason Currie, NWT’s manager of fire operations says with snow pack water equivalencies being “well above average” this season is helping delay wildfire season.
“The North is a rough country to be in. If you're not prepared to go out in the bush, my advice would be stay home because if things go sideways, one bad thing multiplies and multiplies until you're in serious, serious trouble. And this is just somebody out for a dog walk,” says Tom Girrior, an instructor and volunteer search co-ordinator with Yellowknife Search and Rescue.
The Government of the Northwest Territories and the City of Yellowknife are working to advance a feasibility study to determine if the territory should pursue a bid to host the 2035 Canada Winter Games.
The Northwest Territories department of Infrastructure has issued more seasonal road closure cautions for winter roads in the last days of April. Today a 72-hour closure caution was issued for the Aklavik Access Road but officials warned the road “may close sooner with little to no notice.”
The Tłı̨chǫ̨ Government says they plan to form a joint venture with Fortune Minerals Limited towards the construction of a proposed access road for the NICO critical minerals project.The Tłı̨chǫ̨ Government and the mineral company say they are pursuing project funding through the Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund’s clean energy and transportation infrastructure program.
