Whitehorse switches to groundwater supply

Residents of Whitehorse are no longer getting their water from Schwatka Lake, as the city's water supply has been switched over to aquifers.

The $3.5-million project, funded through federal gas tax revenues, means Whitehorse's water supply now comes from wells under the city's Riverdale subdivision.

All the city's water connections to Schwatka Lake, which has water flowing in from the Yukon River, were disconnected when the latest new wells were brought online last month, city engineering manager Wayne Tuck said.

"From the city's perspective, we are fortunate. People living in the Yukon have an excellent water supply coming from the Yukon River," Tuck told CBC News.

"But that being said, there are new regulations."

Tuck said tragedies related to water safety, such as the E. coli contamination crisis in Walkerton, Ont., forced cities across Canada to tighten security around public water supplies.

Water from the Yukon River, while generally considered to be clean, still poses a risk of carrying giardia and other potentially dangerous contaminants, Tuck said.

City officials did consider building a multi-million-dollar water treatment plant for Schwatka Lake, but Tuck said engineers determined the Riverdale aquifers could be expanded to supply the whole city.

"We didn't have to do groundwater, but we could have put in a big water treatment facility, and that is required — that if you're using surface water, you need to treat it properly," he said.

"That would have been hugely expensive to build and operate."