If you are driving into Lethbridge on Highway 3, or coming in on 43 Street, you might think the city has sprouted a mountain or two. In some ways it has.
Two massive snow hills have been created in those locations by city crews who have been clearing snow as long as Mother Nature has kept delivering it.
“When everything is running well, we are dumping 30 to 35 truckloads of snow an hour into this snow dump site,” said Lee Perkins, the transportation operations manager with the City of Lethbridge.
Already this season, roughly 8,000 truckloads of snow have been dumped at the University Drive snow location. The same amount has been dumped along the 43 Street site.
That’s 16,000 loads of snow already this winter, but where does it all end up?
“This snow will melt into a collections system, which then goes into a retention pond and that pond is designed to be cleaned out every 20 to 25 years, Perkin said. “It’s designed so that the solids will settle out, but the water is released into the coulee at a rate that’s acceptable to Alberta Environment.”
With the snow coming from roadways covered with everything from salt, sand and chemicals like oil and gas, Perkins said it’s all treated before it is released, ensuring any water fowl calling it home is safe.
The city has spent $1 million of its $3.2-million budget for the 24-hour snow removal operation.
When planning is all left to Mother Nature, there is no way of telling how much bigger the piles will get and how long they will stick around.
“In my 10 years here with the city, this is the most significant snow I’ve seen, and prior to this, one year, half the pile was here until June,” Perkins said. “So, you know, unless we have a really nice spring and a really nice summer, this snow could be here until next fall.”
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