Fuel mismatch persisted blizzards, are making it almost unattainable to remove snow 

Key takeaways: 

• Snow-clearing efforts, water supply hindered by broken-down gear after multi-day blizzards.
• Teema Palluq said it’s almost nine meters from the ground to the top of the snow stacked around this Clyde River residence.

Clyde River facing problems to clear snow: 

Clyde River, Nunavut, has met weeks of multi-day blizzards. The hamlet’s senior administrative officer said that the neighborhood doesn’t have the proper fuel to run their new snow-clearing tools.

Typically the hamlet depends on a bulldozer and two loaders to remove streets and clear snow, but in late January, the bulldozer and one of the loaders broke down.

Jerry Natanine said the source of the issue is that their new equipment requires diesel fuel, and the neighborhood doesn’t have any. 

The district hasn’t had diesel fuel since the existing tank farm was constructed in the 1990s, stated the deputy minister for Community and Government Services, Kyle Seeley.

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He stated that the tank farm in Clyde River only keeps gasoline and Jet A fuel, which has always been used to work heavy equipment and heat homes. Natanine said that’s something the hamlet wasn’t conscious of because their old tools operated just fine on Jet-A fuel.  

“So when [the] hamlet got new appliances… it didn’t even come to consider that there was the fuel that wasn’t going to be good.” Source – cbc.ca

Natanine stated he and others in the hamlet always considered the fuel held at the tank farm was diesel. 

“As all the homes use, we call it diesel. Every time we purchase some to use our camp stove or something, we always say we’re going to buy some diesel. And I don’t know. It’s impossible.”  Source – cbc.ca