December 9,1995

I was checking my diary from my stay in the North and I see a very active few days before coming south for Christmas. We were in the middle of a deep freeze up and our utilidor froze completely. An utilidor is a heated pipe which carries the water supply from a tank beside our water lake to the hamlet tank. Our hamlet tank is used by the water trucks to distribute fresh water to all the homes and businesses.

The Cambridge utilidor is three miles long and is heated by four furnaces which pump hot antifreeze around the fresh water pipe. This is a normal procedure in the far north where temperatures and perma  frost makes it impossible to pump water by conventional means.

I was preparing to go home any day but I could not leave until this problem was solved. It was a yearly problem so I thought we could fire up the furnaces and get the water flowing. The workers knew better and tried every trick in the book in order to get the water flowing. Time was critical because out Hamlet water tank was nearly empty.

Everyone in the hamlet was told to ration water and the hotels were put on notice that trouble was brewing.Our water foreman quickly put the emergency plan into effect. Clear the snow from the lake to make a portable pumping station. Open up a hole through the 8 feet of ice and pump the water directly through to the water trucks. This is easily done but it puts the pressure on the workers because of the distance they had to travel.

It being only the 9th of December the men in the water department could look forward to long hours for the next five and a half months. The men worked, the water was delivered and the hamlet went back to normal delivery schedule. The water truck drivers had a mammoth job keeping up with the demand so we hired more casuals to help and added an extra man on the night shift.

Down here we take water for granted. Up there it is a matter of life and death. I was always proud of the manner in which the workers prevailed in conditions that were brutally cold. Because of their tenacity I was able to leave there for Christmas holidays without worrying about the water.