First Nation suggests alternate Dawson lagoon site

The Tr'ondek Hwech'in Han Nation in Dawson City, Yukon, are proposing the town build its much-needed but controversial sewage lagoon on its land, but some say the First Nation's offer may be too late and too expensive for the Yukon government to consider.

Land on the First Nation was unavailable when engineers first started seeking a site for the lagoon, which Dawson was ordered to build after the territorial court fined the town $5,000 in 2003 for dumping raw sewage into the Yukon River.

Earlier this year, officials settled on a site on Dome Road near the local baseball diamonds and adjacent to First Nation housing something Chief Darren Taylor said concerns him.

"Eventually it will leak," Taylor said. "These geotech layers, they don't last forever."

Last week, the Tr'ondek Hwech'in proposed building on a bench of Tr'ondek land it wants to develop across the Klondike River. However, Taylor said the Yukon government has shown no interest in his proposal to date.

As a result, Taylor said he is looking to the Dawson town council for support, but Mayor John Steins said the town cannot afford to ignore a court-ordered deadline of having the system in place by the end of 2008.

"To a large degree, our hands are tied," Steins said. "I mean, I hope that [the Tr'ondek Hwech'in] can put something together that's doable. That would be wonderful if they could advance a different plan, but time is running out."

Taylor said the governments should look at long-term impacts of the lagoon, as opposed to costs.

"I guess the worst case scenario is that it leaks and contaminates our water supply, and I guess we have to live with it because of lack of co-operation," he said.

Yukon Territorial Court Judge Heino Lilles will visit Dawson in June to check on the town's progress in establishing the lagoon.