OBSERVATION:
This observation was made by Phillip and Paula Spencer on February 24, 2016, while driving from Wrigley to Norman Wells. At the point of observation the Mackenzie Valley Winter Road crosses a small, shallow pond, near Little Smith Creek. Normally at this time of year there is no surface water, but this year the surface water depth at this crossing as approximately 12", with an air temperature of -4 C.
Mild winter temperatures have resulted in earlier, more frequent, and greater-than-normal amounts of overflow - water that flows across and floods transportation structures such as the Mackenzie Valley ice road that runs between Wrigley and the Sahtu Communities like Norman Wells, NWT. The Sahtu Communities (Colville Lake, Deline, Tulita, Fort Good Hope, and Norman Wells) are reliant on winter ice road access to bring in fuel and other supplies over the winter months, as there is no permanent all-season road access.
When spring hits and the winter ice road melts, the towns become reliant on either air freight from Yellowknife or on Mackenzie River barges between Norman Wells and Hay River, to bring in supplies. Barge season usually runs from early June to early October, but the Mackenzie River is seeing lower than normal water levels which delays or altogether prevents barge operation. Air freight is extremely expensive, so being forced to bring in supplies by air significantly raises the cost of living for residents.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
There is now pressure to construct an all-season road in anticipation that climate-change-related effects may make traditional access to Norman Wells infeasible. See this link for more info: http://www.dot.gov.nt.ca/Projects/Future_Projects/Mackenzie-Valley-Highway
For climate change discussion in context to NWT Road access please see: https://www.google.ca/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=climate%20change%20and%20the%20mackenzie%20valley%20winter%20road
For additional information on the MV Winter Road please use this link: http://upherebusiness.ca/post/87927777827
CONSULTATIONS:
1) Frank Pope, Oil and Gas Transportation expert (preferred),
2) Allan Spencer, GNWT transportation expert,
3) Brian Sieben, Adaptation Planning Specialist (preferred),
***Correspondence from Frank Pope:*
By email:
Climate Change Related Observations
To Phil Spencer, From Frank Pope
Phil I reviewed your paragraph on local climate change phenomena, and wish to add the following personal observations.
As you stated the annual winter road January 1st to March 15th from Wrigley to the five Sahtu communities in in great danger from warmer weather and shorter shipping seasons, as observed. I would add to this the access to Deline being over Great Bear Lake where the annual resupply season is becoming so much shorter annually that the community and D.O.T are reviewing access to the community along the northern area of the Bear River and taking Bear Lake out of the annual route.
The reason that lower water levels in the Mackenzie River are affecting annual resupply to communities by river is that there are two sets of rapids between Norman Wells and Fort Good Hope. Lower water levels are making them impassable into September one month or more earlier than has been the norm.
Oil and gas exploration in the Sahtu which is the life blood of our boom bust economy, has seen work seasons diminish from what used to be early November to late April to more recently mid-January to mid-March.
As an interim measure the all season Mackenzie Valley road will initially run from Wrigley to Norman Wells, the road further north to Inuvik is not as important at this juncture in our issues with climate change, making it more affordable, therefore more acceptable to politicians.
One last point many of the creeks and streams which we used to fish 15 to 20 years ago are no longer clear enough for rod and line fishing due to the melting permafrost muddying up the clear water, previously in these water bodies.
Correspondence from Allan Spencer:
By email:
From Allan Spencer:
The Department of Transportation (DOT) has noticed that the climate is steadily changing in the Northwest Territories and we are attempting to develop ways to mitigate the effects of these changes through various construction techniques, extensive testing systems and professional consultation with other jurisdictions.
Perhaps the most noticeable effect of climate change is the resulting permafrost degradation from warmer, shorter winters. Much of our all-weather highway systems are constructed over top of ice rich environments and are suffering from differential settling, sinkholes and potholes as a result of increasing temperatures and disappearing permafrost. We now have projects aimed at developing ways to prevent degradation and allow the permafrost to be insulated (in summer) and refrozen during the winter.
Winter roads are also being affected by the noticeable warming trend and require increased efforts to maintain historical opening and closing dates, as well as allowable load weights. Unpredictable winters are leading to more and more costly testing and monitoring requirements. What you observed on the MV Winter Road is occurring more and more often on NWT roads.
Other noticeable changes due to climate changes are unpredictable melting characteristics leading to highway washouts and culvert failures, a rise in freezing rain events resulting in unpredictable highway conditions and more measures required to maintain safe road conditions and longer growing seasons which require more mowing and clearing efforts.
Allan Spencer
Maintenance Engineering Technologist
Highways & Engineering Operations
Department of Transportation
Government of the Northwest Territories
Hay River, NT
p. 867.874.5025 | f. 867.874.2272
email. allan_spencer@gov.nt.ca
***Correspondence from Brian Sieben:*
By email:
Hi Phil
It was great speaking with you on the phone. I want to share a tool with you for generating climate projections into the future to support climate change adaptation decision making.
We worked with the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) to develop the following tool for generating climate change projections of mean monthly temperature and precipitation out to 2099 for NWT communities and mines.
http://tinyurl.com/snap-nwt
In the community box if you type Northwest Territories you can see all the NWT communities and mines. You can also see three CO2 concentrations (Representative Concentration Pathways).
You can also see the range of models by clicking the Range button. The 1961-1990 period shown in grey represents the historical 30 year climate averages for 1961-1990.
This tool also includes all NWT communities, Alberta communities and communities in Western Canada.
https://www.snap.uaf.edu/news/updated-community-charts
Cheers
Brian
Brian Sieben, Climate Change Adaptation Planning Specialist,
Environment Division, Climate Change Unit,
Dept. of the Environment and Natural Resources,
Government of the Northwest Territories,
Phone: (867) 767-9236 Ext 53203 <= New Number
Fax: (867) 873 - 0221,
email: brian_sieben@gov.nt.ca
visit our website: www.nwtclimatechange.ca
***Correspondence from John MacDonald:*
Mr. John MacDonald is a Dene elder who has lived in Norman Wells and Tulita all of his life. I interviewed him briefly to see what differences he's observed in context to climate.
- P Spencer: Have you observed any changes to climate in the Sahtu area?
- J MacDonald: Of course, the winters are so warm now we can walk around outside in a t-shirt! When I was younger, we'd have months of -40 or worse, but it was dry and not much wind. Now it's -20, -25, and humid, damp, and windy. I don't like it, it's not that safe on the land. There's open water, thin ice, moose aren't wintering where they used to, so it's harder to find moose when we need it. And the Mackenzie (River) doesn't get ice like it used to...it's only 3 or 4 feet thick, where it used to 9 or even 10 feet thick.
One nice thing is it's cheaper to heat my house...I used to cut wood to heat my house, but now I just burn oil. Doesn't cost much now. And now with the warmer winters, we have lower water levels in the Mackenzie, also because of the Bennett Dam upstream...so the high water we used to get from the Liard River doesn't bring us firewood like it used to. So I burn oil now. And I eat moose when I can get it.
Observations From Members 