Following the successful conclusion of the Clean Start program in the Sahtu, Ecology North began working with the MACA School of Community Government and the GNWT Dept of Environment and Natural Resources to develop an instructional film intended to help NWT communities to better manage their hazardous waste.
Hazardous waste superstar Gerald Enns, along with Christine Wenman and Jeremy Flatt from Ecology North, developed a script covering the basics of dealing with a disorganized stockpile of hazardous waste and developing a community hazardous waste management plan. At just shy of forty minutes, this instructional epic leaves no stone un-turned and features interviews with municipal staff in Wekweètì reflecting on their experience of removing hazardous waste from the community as well as a comprehensive demonstration by Gerald Enns of the proper process for opening un-labelled drums and identifying the contents.
Copies of the video are available from the GNWT Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.
Ecology North, GNWT- ENR and the community of Sambaa K’e have been working together to remove hazardous waste from the landfill.
Source Water Sampling Revealed Hazardous Waste as a Primary Concern
In 2015, the community completed a draft source water protection plan that identified several potential water quality contaminant sources within the Trout Lake watershed, and a list of desired management actions to address the potential contaminant sources, including hazardous waste in the landfill.
Following the completion of the plan, our team started moving towards implementing priority action items in the plan. Although the concerns are diverse, water quality sampling is a clear priority. During 2015-2016 we focused our implementation efforts on doing water quality sampling near abandoned well and waste sites in the watershed.
Building on the results and capacity developed during the 2015-2016 sampling work, our team decided it was the best time to move towards addressing the actions in the source water plan related to hazardous waste in the community and associated concerns about water quality impacts.
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Hazardous Waste Remediation, Phase 1
In 2016, Ecology North received funding from the World Wildlife Fund to continue our source water implementation work with the community of Trout Lake, specifically with respect to hazardous waste!
This project was aimed at addressing community concerns and questions about the potential impacts that hazardous waste materials in the community are having on surrounding water quality. Our team, which consisted of members from the Sambaa K’e Dene Band of Trout Lake and GNWT ENR, inventoried, consolidated and removed hazardous waste from the community landfill, while also collecting water samples in streams and wetlands surrounding the landfill before and after the clean up.
In addition to collecting valuable data and completing an important clean up initiative, this project was a great hands-on training opportunity for community members to learn more about hazardous waste management and water sampling.
Through this project we were able to provide a unique hazardous waste training opportunity. Ecology North invited other communities to send candidates for the documenting, organizing and the final removal of Trout Lake’s hazardous materials from the local landfill. We held two training opportunities, one in the summer for the documenting, and organizing of hazardous waste ready for removal during the winter road season.
Hazardous Waste Remediation, Phase 2
Our second session commenced in March 2017 for the loading and removal of the hazardous waste on the winter road. We’d like to thank, World Wildlife fund, ENR and the following individuals from their respective communities in the successful removal of hazardous waste form the community of Trout Lake;
The 2015-2016 Trout Lake Water Quality Sampling Project emerged from the Source Water Protection Planning Project that Ecology North undertook in partnership with the Sambaa K’e Dene Band (SKDB) and Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) in 2014.
Following the completion of the plan in 2015, there were several calls for additional water quality sampling near abandoned well and waste sites in the watershed. As such, this project was developed as a first step towards implementing these calls for action. The purpose of the sampling project was to gain a better understanding of how abandoned well and waste sites may be impacting water quality in the Sambaa K’e watershed.
Sampling
The majority of sampling was done by SKDB members during the summer and fall of 2015. In total, nine samples were taken from five different sites identified as source water priorities by Sambaa K’e community members. Parameters test included pH, total BTEX (hydrocarbons), conductivity, major ions, total trade metals and total mercury. All of the results were compared to the Canadian Water Quality Guidelines for the Protection of Aquatic Life, which are developed by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME).
Overall, the 2015 sampling results were positive. At all sites, arsenic, molybdenum, nickel, lead, selenium and zinc were below the CCME Guidelines for the Protection of Aquatic Life. No hydrocarbons (oil and gas chemicals) were detected at these sites. There were some exceedances in cadmium, copper, iron, total mercury and silver, these sites were flagged for continued monitoring through future work.
Results Meeting
In early January 2016 Ecology North hosted a results meeting and open house in Sambaa K’e, nearly one fifth of the community attended this meeting. These results were well received and fostered substantial interest among community members for additional training and continued water sampling in the community. The insights gathered from this meeting and the sampling results collected during the project are being used to inform the development of a more formal source water protection implementation plan for Sambaa K’e. The plan will provide a more detailed list of actions, timelines and targets for source water protection activities, including our Hazardous Waste Clean Up Project.
Ecology North developed this discussion paper on territorial carbon pricing in February 2016, prior to the implementation of the territorial Carbon Tax in 2019.
The Peel River Plateau region of the NWT is experiencing some of the most dramatic climate change impacts in the world. Warming winter temperatures and increasing summer rainfall are causing large tracts of land to melt and slump, releasing massive quantities of sediment into rivers and lakes. Scientists working with the NWT’s Cumulative Impacts Monitoring Program are seeking to understand the extent of the changes and their implications for the region and its people.
Christine Wenman spent a week in Ft McPherson NWT filming these scientists at work. The short documentary that was produced features interviews with the scientists as well as local residents who contributed to the research. The film will be available online when it has completed a run of independent festivals. Watch this space.
During the year of 2014-2015 Ecology North had the opportunity to work with the Sambaa K’e Dene Band (SKDB) of Trout Lake to develop the first source water protection plan in the NWT.
In response to growing concerns about their drinking water (i.e., climate change impacts, industrial development, and historic waste sites), Sambaa K’e opted to complete a community source water protection plan. The plan was completed through a collaborative partnership approach with Ecology North, SKDB and the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENR), who provided both financial and technical support to help make the plan happen.
Source water refers to raw water from aquifers, streams or lakes that is used to supply drinking water systems. The purpose of source water protection planning is to prevent contaminants from entering a drinking water source prior to treatment, and thus it is often considered the first essential step to ensuring safe drinking water. The need for community source water protection planning is well recognized in the NWT Water Stewardship Strategy and Action Plan, and in 2012 GNWT ENR began taking the important initial steps towards addressing this need. The department hosted two community source water protection workshops to help introduce the concept of source water protection and build community capacity with respect to the development of community source water protection plans. The workshops also led to the development of a NWT Source Water Assessment and Protection Guidance Document, which is intended to help interested communities engage in source water protection planning.
The source water protection plan for Sambaa K’e is partly based on the NWT Source Water Assessment and Protection Guidance Document. The project brought Sambaa K’e community members and Elders together with watershed interest groups, government staff, and community staff to identify potential source water threats and to determine appropriate management actions to address those threats. In total, 21 potential contaminant sources were identified and mapped in the source water plan. A series of management actions, includinghazardous waste remediation, were also prioritized and recorded in the plan. These management actions provide ongoing direction for future source water implementation initiatives in the community of Sambaa K’e
In March 2013, Environment Canada published a report, Technical Document on Municipal Solid Waste Organics Processing that had a target audience of medium to large Canadian municipalities. In the Canadian North, over half the population lives in small- to medium-sized communities outside of the capital cities. Recently, communities such as Hay River, Northwest Territories have expressed a desire to recycle like their southern counterparts and to compost organic residuals such as food and yard wastes. Composting organic materials using paper products as carbon sources presents an opportunity to locally convert more than 60% of the waste stream into a valuable soil amendment.
This Feasibility of Centralized Composting in Hay River report builds on this previous work by providing a case study for territorial, provincial and municipal governments, and other decision-makers to increase organics diversion in northern communities.
Ecology North, in collaboration with the community of Fort Resolution, including Deninu Kue First Nation, Fort Resolution Metis Council, Deninu School, GNWT ENR, and the University of Saskatchewan, helped to develop a pilot project aimed at engaging Fort Resolution youth in cumulative impacts assessments related to water. We saw an opportunity to build on ongoing research and monitoring efforts in Fort Resolution by developing a program to engage community youth in aquatic cumulative effects monitoring, while also linking to ongoing high school science curriculum.
The core focus of the project, in addition to ongoing collection of data to assess cumulative water impacts in the NWT, was youth capacity building. One of the key goals of the project was to encourage youth to become knowledgeable and interested in carrying out monitoring work in their communities with researchers, scientists, technical staff and community organizations.
The project was broken into four learning sessions, which were a series of workshop style sessions that combined western science and traditional knowledge, hands-on activities, instruction and break-out group work. Each session focused on a different part of the research and monitoring process and gave students an opportunity to learn and try out new skills. Three detailed curriculum resource templates pertaining to water, ice and fish were also developed as part of the project. The curriculum resources are designed to provide guidance, activities and information for teachers interested in incorporating activities that can reflect learning about cumulative effects.
Over the course of the project students developed their own individual research projects on a topic of interest to them. The projects were student-led and student-driven and followed an inquiry-based learning process that was part of the experiential science curriculum taught by Mr. Ted Moes at Deninu School.
Click below to read the teaching resource that was developed for this pilot project:
The use of wood pellet stoves and boilers in the Northwest Territories is increasing quickly as more people convert to biomass heating systems. Approximately 90 tonnes of wood pellet ash were produced from industrial, commercial and residential boilers and stoves in 2013.
Samples of fly ash and bottom ash from wood pellet boilers and stoves were analyzed to determine their suitability as an agricultural soil amendment, including fertilizing potential as well as testing physical characteristics and concentration of elements or compounds that could be toxic or limiting to plant growth. Wood pellet ash is rich in potassium and certain micronutrients. It is also highly alkaline and has high acid neutralizing values. The author found that wood pellet ash added safely to compost at a maximum of 5-15% of total compost weight can enrich it in a variety of nutrients. Ash can be a valuable addition to compost especially during the early decomposition stages. Wood pellet ash must be monitored in compost in order to avoid alkaline shock and reduced productivity.
In 2013 and 2014, Ecology North partnered with Sahtu communities to tackle the challenge of hazardous waste that has accumulated in municipal solid waste disposal sites over decades. Much of this waste comes from non-municipal sources such as industry and government.
Together with municipalities and with support from the GNWT departments of ENR and MACA, we were able to develop itemized inventories of hazardous waste in the solid waste facilities in the communities of Norman Wells, Tulita, Colville Lake and Fort Good Hope. A lot of the waste was tidied up, labeled and repacked so that much of it is now ready for transport out of the communities and disposal at appropriate facilities that are able to handle these kinds of waste.
The project also helped to draw attention to the challenge, and we are hopeful that federal, territorial and municipal jurisdictions will be able to work together to dispose of the waste in the future.
