Moncton’s massive snow dump is awe inspiring and growing by the day, but it has nearby residents worried about what’ll happen when the spring thaw comes.
The mountain of snow already dwarfs the 3.5-metre high dump trucks that bring loads of snow from city streets nearly non-stop.
Neighbours along nearby Jonathan Creek say the area already experiences frequent flooding.
“We had a flood here last spring, in April, in which the water came all the way up on the trail back here … and that was without the dump there,” said local resident Edgar Poirier.
But city officials say they don’t think the melting of the snow mound will increase the flood risk this spring.
“It's all contained by a berm, and it has to go through a manhole with a one-foot pipe coming out of it, so it's a very controlled melt,” said Jeff Scott of Moncton Public Works.
Poirier said he hopes that plan works.
“I lost all the basement I had here. We had to lug everything we had downstairs,” he said.
“We had a bit of time to do that but this time we may not be so lucky.”
The city has partnered with Ducks Unlimited to build a wetland behind the snow dump to help absorb and filter some of the run-off from the mound.
“The plants that will be here will be salt tolerant so they'll be able to grow in spite of having some elevated salts,” said Adam Campbell of Ducks Unlimited.
“Any of the hydrocarbons and nutrients will also be able to be absorbed before it enters into Jonathan Creek below,” he said.
The project is a first for the organization: Ducks Unlimited has never before built a wetland in conjunction with a snow dump.
The wetland project, however, won’t be finished in time for this year’s melt, leaving residents worried about what the spring thaw will bring.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Jonathan MacInnis
