When conducting testing on its water treatment plant, Fort Good Hope follows the sampling and testing requirements and guidelines established by the environmental health officer of the Department of Health and Social Services, as follows:
- • free chlorine and total chlorine levels are measured three times daily;
- • bacteriological sampling is done four times monthly;
- • chemical and physical parameters are measured 24 times per year; and,
- • trihalomethanes are measured twice per year.
The water treatment system in Fort Good Hope is maintained by the community government, and consists of a seasonal fill reservoir and truck fill station. The reservoir is filled twice per year and works as a sedimentation tank, as well as a storage reservoir. This water is chlorinated before filling of the water delivery truck occurs.
The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is providing funding over three fiscal years to Fort Good Hope from the water and sewer systems deficiencies budget, to provide for upgrades to the truck fill station. This project is still in progress and is anticipated to be substantially complete during the 2005-2006 fiscal year.
There are three other communities in the Northwest Territories -- Tuktoyaktuk, Jean Marie River and Trout Lake -- that use a reservoir and truck fill system similar to the system in place in Fort Good Hope.
As part of the annual capital planning process, Municipal and Community Affairs staff last met with Fort Good Hope community members on July 12, 2004, and provided an update on the truck fill station upgrade project. Municipal and Community Affairs would be pleased to meet again with council and elders to discuss any issues surrounding the Fort Good Hope water treatment plant.