One Of Edmonton's Snow Dumps

With the heavy snowfall experienced in the Capital region, snow dumps around the city have expanded to epic proportions, raising concern with city council that the piles may not be melted come the fall. This would, of course, pose a problem for snow disposal crews for the winter of 2011.

Core samples taken from the massive piles have proven that, due to the heavier than average quantity of snow and the use of heavy machinery to spread the snow, most of the interior of the piles are solid ice and would take substantially longer to melt.

In a drastic move by Edmonton city council, a motion was pushed through to use thousands of pounds of dynamite to break up these mountains of ice and expose their icy centers to the summer sun in hopes of melting them faster. Of course, not everyone is a fan of the idea.

Surrounding homes and businesses are concerned about the potential for flying ice debris causing property damage or even injury to those nearby. Despite these concerns, city council has decided to move ahead with the proposal.

“These locations have been chosen because of their distance from the residential and business centers. We’ve been assured that the risk to nearby public is minimal,” said Edmonton mayor, Steven Mandel.

No date has been set for the demolition of these snow dumps however experts predict it will likely be sometime in early May and adequate warning will be given to the surrounding communities prior to the explosions taking place.