Public works’ crews driving loaders and trucks descended on a nuisance dumping location at the city’s boundary with Edmonton last night, hauling away several loads of garbage and large items that have cropped up.
Located northeast of Campbell Business Park where Veness and Poundmaker Roads intersect, the pile had become an eyesore despite its relatively isolated location. Mayor Nolan Crouse brought the subject up at the end of city council’s regular Monday meeting, asking the general manager of planning and engineering if the department could look into it and potentially clean it up.
“It’s always been there but I just feel it’s gotten a lot worse this year,” Crouse said in a later interview. “I’ve driven past it so many times and it’s always something.”
Crouse likened the situation to the broken window theory — the longer a window sits broken without being repaired, the more likely it is that more windows around it will be broken.
A drive past the location Thursday morning revealed a mound of dirt approximately four to five feet high, as well as discarded cardboard boxes, a dishwasher, oven and microwave, broken furniture and discarded lumber. Large pieces of metal, a child’s slide and some rebar had also been left on the site.
By Friday morning, the entire pile was gone. Public works director Glenn Tompolski said the city would now explore installing a “No Dumping” sign as well as a potential barrier.
“This seems to be an ongoing issue so we want to make sure we get that signed as appropriately as possible and discourage that kind of activity,” Tompolski said.
The site has become a nuisance for the city because of its remote location. It has been cleaned up repeatedly over the years but always seems to pop back up.
“Once one person dumps there, everyone thinks it’s a dumping ground,” Tompolski said.
The city will first contact Edmonton to determine who exactly is responsible for its maintenance. While the location appears to lie on a small sliver of St. Albert’s boundaries, Tompolski said Edmonton has cleaned it up in the past.
“The City of Edmonton has cleaned it, sometimes we’ve cleaned it. We need clarification on who is responsible for the area.”
