Contwoyto Lake Weather Station

Here is a Brief Overview of the Contwoyto Lake Weather Station

The site is located approximately 190 kilometres southwest of Bathurst Inlet and 330 kilometres

southeast of Kugluktuk (on the older maps it’s called Coppermine).

There was a small camp was built and operated on the site by Pacific Western Airlines (PWA) during the construction of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line Stations. In 1978, Transport Canada acquired the site to establish a telecommunications and navigational aid station. In 1984, the Coppermine Hunters and Trappers Association took over responsibility for the site buildings.

What we (SENES) is doing on the site, you might be asking yourself. Well we are on site to conduct a Phase 3 Environmental Site Assessment to develop a strategy for remediate this site.

The site currently consists of the remains of five buildings (a hunting cabin, the main building, a generator building and two small radio shacks); two dump areas consisting of extensive metal debris and burn areas; an airstrip; and four fuel caches. There is an estimated 505 cubic metres of metal and hydrocarbon-impacted soil at the site, as well as non-hazardous debris.

Our first trip into site we had a 1000ft ceiling and dropping, but our pilot decided that it would be OK to take off (before the tower at Yellowknife shut flights down due to low a ceiling), so off we went 1 hour 45 minutes flying at 500 feet. In other words our floats were just above the trees, to make this more of a challenge for our pilot, 15 minutes into the flight we hit a fog bank (like being inside a cotton ball) but once we passed the tree line it was all good the sky cleared, we had no wind and Contwoyto Lake was calm water on a plate.….which meant that the .flies were wicked. The mosquitoes were kicking the blackflies out of the way so they would have room to bite.

We worked on the peninsula for the day. What a beautiful lake Contwoyto is, all sand beaches and crystal clear, but cold water, cobble bottom and no weeds and according to our wildlife monitor full of huge trout.

The flight home was a lot better, the only incident of note was when the pilot bumped the co-pilot from the cockpit and placed our geologist Claire Brown in the second seat and allowed her to have control of the otter. He did take control back for the landing.

Day 2 had us going in with two planes, our twin (with the SENES crew, wildlife monitor and survey crew) and a turbo otter (same as a twin, but with only one prop) which had out PWGSC rep, INAC rep and the archeologist. The archeologist was there to check for historical items, tent rings tools etc.

The day was cold (august and we are wearing long-johns) and windy in the morning, which was good as it kept the flies down, however by noon the weather had changed, hot and windless. While we toiled digging test-pits in the marshes around the site, the air crew was fishing, swimming and having a cook up on the beach complete with bannock, guitar and singing. As all this activity was going on there was a small young caribou wandering around watching us.

On day three of our tour, I worked on DSS (designated substances survey) of the buildings. I was inside the structures out of the wind, with my 3000 disciples vying for my attention. I left the site that day a little anaemic.

Day 4 was drums, drums and more drums…memories of Sawmill Bay came rushing back. In the end there was less than 300, 100 of which we had to check and sample, it still took three of us all day to do.

As it takes longer to load photos (from the hotel) than it does to complete the site assessment work, I’ll try to get as many as I can put on the blog here during my day off, which is today, but there is packing, packing equipment and getting anything we are missing before we leave tomorrow morning for Canol Trail.

Cheers…photos to follow, I hope!