[Stang]

I was having a discussion with some friends about landfills (because that's apparently great idle chit chat), particularly the Spyhill landfill, and it was suggested that some residential areas have been built over what used to be the landfill.

Does anyone know or remember if this is actually the case? I remember, probably 20 years ago, driving up Nose Hill Drive from the Crowfoot area and eventually ended up at the dump. I just can't remember how far up the road it was.

Someone suggested that Arbour Lake and Citadel are all on former landfill land, and someone else said that's impossible. Anyone know for sure?

[mersar]

I was having a discussion with some friends about landfills (because that's apparently great idle chit chat), particularly the Spyhill landfill, and it was suggested that some residential areas have been built over what used to be the landfill.

Does anyone know or remember if this is actually the case? I remember, probably 20 years ago, driving up Nose Hill Drive from the Crowfoot area and eventually ended up at the dump. I just can't remember how far up the road it was.

Someone suggested that Arbour Lake and Citadel are all on former landfill land, and someone else said that's impossible. Anyone know for sure?

No communities can be built over a landfill under Alberta Health regulations. Citadel is next to the landfill which has its own concerns, but those are fairly minor usually. Theres a few smaller commercial and institutional sites on or near former landfills, but those are smaller sites and usually underwent a fairly good cleanup after (the site immediately north of the science centre used to be a dump I believe, and theres a piece of land in Cochrane beside the movie theatre that they discovered was a dump but they did an extensive cleanup so it can be used for residential)

As for driving up Nosehill to get to a dump, that dump was Spy Hill. Way back when Nose Hill used to go straight through where Citadel is now and ended up at 112th Ave. 85th Street also used to be a main road to the dump when it ran from Crowfoot north before Arbour Lake was built out.

[Stang]

No communities can be built over a landfill under Alberta Health regulations. Citadel is next to the landfill which has its own concerns, but those are fairly minor usually. Theres a few smaller commercial and institutional sites on or near former landfills, but those are smaller sites and usually underwent a fairly good cleanup after (the site immediately north of the science centre used to be a dump I believe, and theres a piece of land in Cochrane beside the movie theatre that they discovered was a dump but they did an extensive cleanup so it can be used for residential)

As for driving up Nosehill to get to a dump, that dump was Spy Hill. Way back when Nose Hill used to go straight through where Citadel is now and ended up at 112th Ave. 85th Street also used to be a main road to the dump when it ran from Crowfoot north before Arbour Lake was built out.

Very good information - thank you! I couldn't imagine that they would build residential directly over a former landfill site.

[freeweed]

Landfills make good parks later in life, so long as they're closed off properly. There was a park in Winnipeg built over a landfill decades ago that wasn't so lucky. They built a huge hill on top of the landfill, and seeing as Winnipeg is so flat, it became the local toboggan hill.

Years later, people started colliding with tires and all sorts of fun refuse as the frost heave brought previous landfill treasures to the surface. To my knowledge there's never been a serious remediation effort, so it may have just been a fluke spot of improperly sealed waste.

Yes, I personally hit some of this wonderful stuff back in my youth. This isn't just fourth-hand anecdote as some have claimed.

[bob1954]

Get on the Edmonton bandwagon..... Waste should be developed into bio-fuels or other products. Won't completely solve the problem, but it would help! Not to mention creating a few jobs.

[Wentworth]

There were a couple of homes in West Springs Farm that were built over a farmer's old landfill that ended up sinking. Perhaps they were thinking of this? Not really a landfill so much as a "garbage pit." It is now routine up here for them to do environmental studies before allowing development of new subdivisions, to identify hazards such as old wells, unofficial waste dump sites, etc..

[Dado]

I was having a discussion with some friends about landfills (because that's apparently great idle chit chat)

Someone been watching Trashopolis on History Channel? :D

[Doug]

Tom Campbell's Park, the Zoo parking lot and parts of Confederation Park are built on landfill. In Edmonton, the Rundle Park and Millwoods golf courses are built on landfill.

[SHOFEAR]

There were a couple of homes in West Springs Farm that were built over a farmer's old landfill that ended up sinking. Perhaps they were thinking of this? Not really a landfill so much as a "garbage pit." It is now routine up here for them to do environmental studies before allowing development of new subdivisions, to identify hazards such as old wells, unofficial waste dump sites, etc..

We have occasionally run into old garbage pits while building our subdivisions. It's just about impossible to find any history of these for the environmental study process. Typically these are backfilled with crapy material so they are uncovered in the stripping process.

[monocle]

No communities can be built over a landfill under Alberta Health regulations. Citadel is next to the landfill which has its own concerns, but those are fairly minor usually. Theres a few smaller commercial and institutional sites on or near former landfills, but those are smaller sites and usually underwent a fairly good cleanup after (the site immediately north of the science centre used to be a dump I believe, and theres a piece of land in Cochrane beside the movie theatre that they discovered was a dump but they did an extensive cleanup so it can be used for residential)

As for driving up Nosehill to get to a dump, that dump was Spy Hill. Way back when Nose Hill used to go straight through where Citadel is now and ended up at 112th Ave. 85th Street also used to be a main road to the dump when it ran from Crowfoot north before Arbour Lake was built out.

My Grandparents mentioned that the Herald building is built on a landfill they used to use in the 50's

[shogged]

No communities can be built over a landfill under Alberta Health regulations.

are we sure about this? I'm almost positive that the blackfoot trailer park is built on an old landfill site.

I thought the main reason for not building on landfill sites was you couldn't dig a basement foundation. Hence, trailer park!

Now that I think about it, isn't the entire deerfoot meadows area former landfill/industrial? The hill being the landfill of course.

[fusili]

are we sure about this? I'm almost positive that the blackfoot trailer park is built on an old landfill site.

I thought the main reason for not building on landfill sites was you couldn't dig a basement foundation. Hence, trailer park!

Now that I think about it, isn't the entire deerfoot meadows area former landfill/industrial? The hill being the landfill of course.

I think the concerns have something to do with Heavy Metal contamination or something in the soil. I would think that any potential for leaching would prevent residential development from happening.

[Doug]

are we sure about this? I'm almost positive that the blackfoot trailer park is built on an old landfill site.

I thought the main reason for not building on landfill sites was you couldn't dig a basement foundation. Hence, trailer park!

Now that I think about it, isn't the entire deerfoot meadows area former landfill/industrial? The hill being the landfill of course.

Deerfoot Meadows is built on the site of a former Cominco Fertilizer (now Agrium) plant that shut down in 1987. The site was contaminated, mostly by heavy metals in the groundwater. I don't think there was any sanitary landfill. The hillside was moved mostly to bring the site above floodplain and to stabilize the hill itself. Before becoming home to a fertilizer plant, the site was wetland and no much higher than the river. Portions of the drainage system are still visible east of Deerfoot. The underpass under Deerfoot was originally a bridge over a drainage canal.

I'm not sure about the Blackfoot Trailer park, but the back nine on Maple Ridge golf course are built on landfill.

[J-D]

Deerfoot Meadows is built on the site of a former Cominco Fertilizer (now Agrium) plant that shut down in 1987. The site was contaminated, mostly by heavy metals in the groundwater. I don't think there was any sanitary landfill. The hillside was moved mostly to bring the site above floodplain and to stabilize the hill itself. Before becoming home to a fertilizer plant, the site was wetland and no much higher than the river. Portions of the drainage system are still visible east of Deerfoot. The underpass under Deerfoot was originally a bridge over a drainage canal.

I'm not sure about the Blackfoot Trailer park, but the back nine on Maple Ridge golf course are built on landfill.

I seem to recall the wreckage from the general hospital demolition was trucked to the deerfoot meadows site as well, for some reason. I might be wrong.