YK council votes to redirect pipeline funding toward pumphouse

Yellowknife city councillors support using federal funding toward replacing a failing pumphouse rather than a drinking-water pipeline.

The city has been considering replacing or upgrading its ageing drinking water infrastructure for years.

In 2016, leaks were identified in the 8.5-km underwater pipeline that transports raw water from a pumphouse near the mouth of the Yellowknife River to a pumphouse near the city’s water treatment plant. There are concerns about the condition of both pumphouses.

An initial 2017 study recommended that the city replace the underwater pipeline with a new one so the municipality could continue drawing water from the Yellowknife River.

In 2019, Yellowknife received nearly $26 million in federal funding to replace the pipeline. At the time, that funding covered 75 percent of the project’s total cost.

Since then, the estimated price tag for the project has ballooned. In an updated study presented to council last month, replacing the pipeline – while completing major upgrades to the two pumphouses – was projected to cost nearly $108 million.

During a Monday meeting, councillors discussed a recommendation from city staff to instead choose what the updated study titled the “status quo” option.

That would mean the city continuing to pump water from the river using the existing pipeline, then switching to Yellowknife Bay once the pipeline is no longer useable. (The city has used Yellowknife River as its primary source of drinking water since 1968, largely to avoid possible arsenic contamination in Yellowknife Bay from the nearby Giant Mine.)

City staff suggested councillors redirect the federal funding toward replacing pumphouse one, which is deemed to be “in a state of failure” as its heating system has failed.

“All realities considered, we just don’t have the money according to the latest figures,” Chris Greencorn, the city’s director of public works and engineering, said of replacing the pipeline.

“In an attempt to address all the realities at play and what may be to come, not commenting on the current political climate, this is our best option at this time.”

Greencorn said replacing the pumphouse would take advantage of federal funding and allow the city to make needed investments in its drinking water infrastructure.

Councillors who spoke at Monday’s meeting were supportive of the proposal to use federal funding toward replacing the pumphouse.

“I don’t think we have any other option here,” said Garett Cochrane.

“I think this is the most reasonable way to be able to address our current situation, not only with our capital funding but with the federal funding being applied to this.”

When it came to whether the city should choose the “status quo” option rather than replacing the pipeline, Mayor Rebecca Alty stressed the importance of considering all risk mitigation options to ensure the city has clean drinking water.

She said that will mean working with the territorial and federal governments as well as Giant Mine.

In recent cases where the city has drawn drinking water from Yellowknife Bay, Greencorn said testing by the NWT health department has indicated the water quality is high.

At a subsequent meeting on Monday night, councillors voted unanimously in favour of using the federal funding toward replacement of pumphouse one, changing the contribution agreement expiry deadline from 2028 to 2032, and directing city staff to seek funding opportunities for the remainder of the project requirements.

City councillors are set to consider whether to choose the “status quo” option, rather than the more expensive option to replace the pipeline, at a meeting on March 24.