Yellowknife residents filled a room at the Explorer Hotel Thursday night where the city held an open house on its water supply upgrade project. 

Those present raised concerns about where the city will draw water from moving forward, and who would pay for badly needed infrastructure upgrades.

Chris Hunt was one of the residents who came in seeking answers. 

“I think there’s going to be a tonne more questions coming,” he said. “We all want to know when they’re gonna go and get the funding, and where they’re gonna get the funding”

The city is currently working on a water supply upgrade with two main components. 

One is to adjust the city’s water license to change where the city can draw water from, and how much. The other is to undertake some significant work on water infrastructure. 

All together, the project’s latest price tag has soared to $110 million.

New water sources

Currently, the Yellowknife River is the city’s designated water source, though the city also draws from Yellowknife Bay as a back-up for maintenance and emergencies.

The city is now asking to be able to draw from both sources, raising concerns at the open house. Residents cited prior instances of the switch affecting the taste of the water, and feared contamination risks arising from the proximity of Yellowknife Bay to the Giant Mine remediation site. 

The city’s web page for the open house says it tests water from Yellowknife Bay monthly, and the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer has confirmed the water was safe for drinking.

“I think folks were concerned that we were just making an immediate switch from the river to the bay, and that’s not the case,” Chris Greencorn, the city’s director of public works, told CBC. 

He said water from Yellowknife Bay would be used to make up the difference between demand and what can flow in from the river. “That’ll occur as demand spikes,” he said. 

The city also wants to increase the total volume of water it’s allowed to draw to deal with an estimated rise in demand over the next 50 years, doubling to 8 million from 4 million cubic meters combined from both sources.

“That’ll be a gradual increase over time,” Greencorn said. 

Infrastructure upgrades

Another major component in the upgrade project includes doing what a consultant for the city referred to as “open-heart surgery” on the aging Pumphouse 1, which currently processes water from the Yellowknife River through a pipeline that also needs work. 

Greencorn said he would call the state of the pumphouse and pipeline a “congestive heart failure,” which has led the system to operate at about 20 per cent of its capacity. 

Greencorn said work on comprehensive repairs has been delayed because the city had to adjust the scope of the project after a contribution agreement with the federal government would have left the city responsible for costs that it can’t afford.

The current estimate for work on Pumphouse 1, Pumphouse 2 and the submarine water line now stands at around $110 million.

At the open house, residents urged the city to ask for the Department of National Defence to pay for the upgrades. 

Bobby Drygeese was among those who echoed the sentiment. 

“National Defence will be coming to Yellowknife to help with the Arctic defence, and if there’s more families that are gonna be coming in, they should be helping out with the clean water system,” he told CBC.

Mayor Ben Hendriksen assured people that water infrastructure is already a recurring part of conversations with the federal department. 

For now the city is moving ahead with its application to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board, aiming to file it next month. 

City staff expect to conduct an inspection of the submarine pipeline’s condition this summer.