Snow dumpers allowed at Town’s site after having no place to plough

Business people in Bonnyville now have a solution to their snow dumping problems.

The Town will allow private snow haulers to use Bonnyville’s current snow dump, south of 47th Avenue near the Pro Rodeo Grounds, for the rest of the winter and pursue a permanent location next year.

Commercial property owners were requesting a spot to dump snow after being told they were not allowed to dump  in the ditches, otherwise they would be fined.

This comes after pressure from Alberta Environment to stop snow haulers from dumping snow wherever they could find space.

“Unfortunately, the regulatory world just keeps getting stricter and stricter and stricter,” said Mayor Gene Sobolewski.

“We’ve been using that area for years. But again, there are some sensitivities with water [Jessie Lake], so we’re far enough away from the water and things like that, but we’ll probably end up having to kind of tighten things up a little bit. Then resize it and it’ll come as a cost. Like I said, this is probably an issue that was inevitable for us.”

In the past, the Town hadn’t allowed private contractors to dump snow at their site because its a small location, but there are no other engineered sites to dump in the area.

The current dump site has limited size due to its proximity to Jessie Lake and guidelines from Alberta Environment.

A Cat will come along and push the excess snow into a larger pile.

Last year, the dump site was completely full without the dog park, the Town said in council notes.