Proposed Improvements

Three options were evaluated, including capital costs, general operation and maintenance costs, overall pros and cons, environmental impact, and community impact.

The preferred snow management design involves stockpiling the snow in an asphalt melt pad area, with runoff contained within a Stormwater Management (SWM) Pond, and discharged to the Otonabee River.

The SWM pond would be lined with a geomembrane, with controls for overflow and runoff; thus greatly limiting any surface, soil, or groundwater impact from the storage of the snow. When the SWM pond level reaches the elevation of the outlet, the overflow will discharge to a new drainage swale through dead vegetation that directs flow overland to the Otonabee River. The SWM controls, in addition to the Managed Forest Plan, will prevent negative impacts to the adjacent woodlot and downstream receivers.

With regard to the clearing of a portion of the woodlot, ORCA and the MNRF would be consulted, and an EIS would be completed, prior to any disturbance of the natural area, to ensure the minimizing of environmental impacts and compliance with all regulatory requirements.

The environmental downside to this approach is the trucking required to bring all snow cleared from the City to one location, at the WWTP. The trucking would be the same as the permanent snowmelter option, but greater impact than the impermanent snowmelters. However, the numerous negatives associated with the impermanent snowmelters greatly outweigh the higher trucking operation.

As the melting of the stored snow pile is proposed to be passive, rather than active melt using a snowmelter, the environmental impact is lessened by not consuming significant quantities of diesel fuel to melt the snow. Further, as the snowmelt water will not be discharged to the WWTP, energy and resources will not be consumed in treating the snowmelt water.

It was noted that regardless of which scenario is moved forward with, the salt in the melt water would ultimately outlet to the Otonabee River, so the assessment only affects the path taken. The suggested option provides the slowest release of the salt content, therefore the greatest opportunity for assimilation within the river.