Will seek another site for Dawson City lagoon, Fentie says

Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie said he will respect the wishes of Dawson City residents who rejected a sewage lagoon at the town's entrance, instead directing engineers to find an alternate location.

Fentie was responding to the results of a referendum held Thursday, in which more than 75 per cent of Dawson voters chose to block the territorial government's proposed site for the court-ordered lagoon.

"We should recognize that they are standing up and being heard, and this referendum was a loud and clear message," Fentie told CBC News on Tuesday.

Many residents in the community of 1,350 say they want the government to find a better location for the sewage treatment facility, as the proposed site was too close to houses and local drinking water sources.

Fentie said his government engineers will begin looking for alternate locations for the lagoon. The municipal and territorial governments have been under court order to build a lagoon sincea court fined the town in 2003 for dumping raw sewage into the Yukon River.

But Fentie said he believes Dawson City is being treated unfairly by authorities with Environment Canada, which has been pushing for the sewage treatment plant to be built.

The federal department has been pressuring town and Yukon officials to move quickly, even though Ottawa is set to announce new national standards for sewage treatment in Canada, he said.

"Those standards stipulate that communities the size of Dawson City would have until the year 2040 to address their discharge issues," Fentie said.

"If that is the case, and this whole process is being driven by a federal government department one has to ask the question, 'Why is Dawson City being treated any different than any other community in Canada the same size as Dawson City?'"

Fentie said he may raise the issue Wednesday when he meets with federal Environment Minister John Baird.

"I'm right now entertaining the possibility of discussing this with the minister, so that there is an understanding at the political level on what it is we're up against to address this issue," he said.

Dawson City presently has until the end of 2008 to stop pumping raw sewage into the Yukon River.

Prosecutors for Environment Canada and the territorial government are due back in court in April to discuss the situation.