Residents grow frustrated as northeast Calgary lot used for illegal dumping – Calgary
It’s a privately-owned parcel of land, earmarked for future development, but as it sits empty, some are using it as a makeshift landfill.
“Chairs, tables, all kinds of beds and mattresses,” said Shirley Silbernagel who works in the area. “You have to drive by all this garbage… it’s unsettling. It looks like we’re a dump.”
Silbernagel says the lot off 128th Avenue and Barlow Trail N.E. has been used a dumping ground for months, adding she’s followed people with trucks full of garbage to try and deter them from leaving their unwanted goods on the side of the road. She says it’s getting increasingly frustrating to see so many people treat the area with little respect.
“This is people’s workplaces; how would it feel for us to come and dump our garbage on your front lawn?”
Down the street at Country Hills Mechanic Shop, Tejpal Bhinder says he’s been watching the piles of garbage spread to the surrounding streets.
“For the people who are actually doing that, I don’t know what words I would use for them to be honest,” said Bhinder, who test drives the cars he repairs in the area and says he’s seen everything from bags of groceries to paint cans left behind.
It’s a mess that is becoming more difficult for residents and workers in the area to ignore. Some are taking to social media, posting photos of vehicles they see dumping garbage, while others are heading out to try and clean up the mess.
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“I’ve seen a lot of volunteers coming and cleaning up,” said Bhinder. “City vehicles as well, but it’s not what the city should be spending its money on.”
The area councillor agrees. Raj Dhaliwal is the Ward 5 city councillor who represents the communities surrounding the lots. He calls the garbage piles disgusting, questioning why someone would think that’s an appropriate place to leave their trash.
“They have no regard for our bylaws,” said Dhaliwal. “They have no respect for the residents who live adjacent to these lands who sometimes come here for biking and walking.”
Dhaliwal believes many of the perpetrators are contractors dropping construction material rather than taking it to the dump and paying the associated fee, which is setting an example for others who are leaving furniture and bags of garbage.
“You have loaded up your truck, you’ve loaded up your minivan, just drive another five… six… ten kilometres to a landfill,” said Dhaliwal.
Dhaliwal says because this is happening mostly on private property, there isn’t a lot the city can do to monitor the area, adding officials shouldn’t have to if citizens follow the rules.
“Our tax dollars should be going towards police services and keeping people safe. They should be going to the fire department for their response times, they should be going to filling our potholes,” explained Dhaliwal. “This is unnecessary.”
Illegal dumping fines in the city range from $1,000 to $10,000 depending on the location and severity of the offence. But if no one is fined, the cost of cleaning up the abandoned items hits the city’s budget.
In the fall, Dhaliwal organized a community cleanup of the area. Volunteers picked up multiple dumpsters worth of garbage but two months later it was all back, once again frustrating those who work in the area.
The city encourages anyone who witnesses illegal dumping to gather as much information as possible about the vehicle, including the licence plate number, and to report it to 311 so an investigation can be started.
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