Resident ‘on guard,’ as erosion threatens homes, infrastructure in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T.
Thawing permafrost causing landslides and shifting ground have long been a concern in Sahtu community
Dozens of homes, the town reservoir and an old cemetery in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., may be at risk from erosion.
It’s long been a concern in the Sahtu community on the Mackenzie River, with thawing permafrost and other environmental change — but it’s still not clear what can or will be done to protect the threatened homes and infrastructure.
Resident Edna Tobac said there was a landslide behind her house more than 30 years ago. She said it happened after they’d lived in their home for five years, and they were still developing the land at the time.
“One day in the summer, we noticed that something was wrong out in the backyard, we just couldn’t place it. We went out there and checked and found that there was a big landslide.”
At the time, there wasn’t much of an impact on her home as the landslide happened away from the building, but she describes it as a sort of wake-up call about the risk.
“I worry about it,” Tobac said. “Especially if we have lots of rain. I know that adds to the erosion that’s already there.”
She said her family does not cut trees on their property in an attempt to maintain stability as the permafrost thaws and the ground shifts.
“With the trees, it keeps the soil together,” Tobac said. “We listened to that advice, we never did any more clearing or anything after that.”
People have also suggested they move their home to safer ground, but she’s not sure they can.
“I have a big log house. When I look at it, I’m no engineer, but I think that it’s impossible,” Tobac said. “We’ve built an addition onto it … so it’s quite big.”
She says her family has also had trouble getting title to the land, and insure their home, because of the landslide decades ago.
That made it difficult to access territorial funding programs for home improvements after Tobac’s husband was disabled by a stroke in 2014 and could no longer work.
“It always came back to liability, no land ownership, and so we were at a disadvantage,” Tobac said.
After years of applications and paperwork they were finally approved to make the needed renovations. But now they’re still facing the threat to their home from erosion and trying to decide what to do next.
“Every spring with ice moving and snow, and the melting … we’re always on guard,” she said.
Tobac says one option is to build a smaller home on another lot, which is something they had attempted to do before her husband’s stroke.
Looking for solutions
Fort Good Hope Chief Shawn Grandjambe says dozens of homes in his community of about 500 may need to be moved in the coming years.
“It’s a really big issue because we have a lot of houses that are right along the Mackenzie River,” Grandjambe told CBC News.
He said officials have determined that 29 homes are on that list to be moved, including four that need to be moved urgently.
Grandjambe said it’s not just homes that are threatened — there’s also the water reservoir.
“[It] has to be relocated too because it’s in a really high risk area right now,” Grandjambe said.
“It’s a really big concern, that’s our only water source in town. If we lose it then we’re going to have to scramble to find a new water source right away.”
The chief said an old cemetery also sits on the edge of the river and is at risk.
Grandjambe says they’re trying to determine next steps. He said consultants working for the territorial government have told him the residents in the affected houses should evacuate their homes during the spring breakup.
“That’s another problem in and of itself too, because we’ve got a big shortage of houses in the community and we don’t know how we’re going to be doing stuff like that,” Grandjambe said.
A workshop is planned in the community for next month with territorial consultants to talk about the issue.
Grandjambe said he looks forward to learning more about the options available to the town, whether it’s moving homes or building new ones.
For now, there’s no clear plan.
“We’re trying to figure out if it might be cheaper just to build them all new houses. I don’t even know if they want to move at all,” Grandjambe said. “We’ve still got to talk to the homeowners.”
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Transport company seeks better N.W.T. infrastructure amid road closures, climate crisis, CBC News
Finland: Flooding in Finland is getting worse, new climate report says, Yle News
Greenland: Trump’s distraction from the real Greenland problem, Blog by Irene Quaile
Iceland: Iceland sees security risk, existential threat in Atlantic Ocean current’s possible collapse, Reuters
United States: How the Arctic has been ‘pushed & triggered’ into climate extremes: paper, Eye on the Arctic
