City of Yellowknife to draw drinking water from the bay during pipeline construction

The City of Yellowknife hosted an open house Wednesday to provide updates on its $34.4 million project to replace the 53-year-old pipeline that supplies residents with drinking water.

The new pipeline is scheduled to be in place by winter of 2026. It will continue to draw water from the Yellowknife River, as is the current system, but the city will have to pull water from Yellowknife Bay during construction beginning in 2024 for a period that could last up to 12 months. 

The city decided in 2018 that the river will continue to be the city's main source of drinking water despite it being costlier than the alternative of drawing directly from the bay. That decision was based on a commissioned report from AECOM Canada Ltd. It said the bay's water is safe to drink despite the presence of arsenic in sediment along the bay.

Ryan King, a project manager with AECOM, spoke at Wednesday's meeting. Since the city can't turn water off during construction, King said his team is "effectively doing open heart surgery on the system."

Chris Greencorn, Yellowknife's director of public works, said that the city tests water from Yellowknife Bay monthly and that the water is safe to drink.

Lois Little has lived in Yellowknife most of her life and said she doesn't "have the confidence" in the water quality of Yellowknife Bay. 

She said that skepticism is from the city's mining history, the traffic in Yellowknife Bay and "an expanding houseboat community."

At Wednesday's meeting, Little raised concerns about the city's communication with the public.

She pointed to power outages in Yellowknife in September that prompted an emergency switch in water source to Yellowknife Bay, a fact she said she learnt from a Cabin Radio report. 

"That was really troublesome," she said of not knowing about the emergency switch. 

"Because of the fundamental importance of water there has to be public service announcements, there has to be media releases ... I want it everywhere."

As the city progresses with the pipeline replacement, Little said she wants to see more frequent testing and wants the public to be informed about the results. 

In February, the city plans to apply for an amendment to its water license. If approved by the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board, the application would allow the city to increase the volume of water it can draw from Yellowknife Bay. 

Currently, that volume is 300 cubic metres a month — not enough to supply the capital with its water supply during the construction months.