Sign up for the paNOW newsletter

Taking the trash out of Nisbet Forest

Apr 29, 2016 | 6:24 AM

An unauthorized dumping site in Nisbet Forest, just outside Prince Albert, received a makeover Thursday morning, April 28.

Sarah Keith, the landfill manager for the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment, said her crew of over 30 workers removed nearly 18 trucks worth of waste from the forest, everything from bags of household waste to appliances and tires.

Keith has been involved in numerous similar waste removal projects, but this time she was especially frustrated by something new.

“They’d used (the area) as a shooting ground, so everything they’d hauled out there had been shot apart, which makes it much more difficult when it’s all in little pieces rather than when it’s whole,” she said.

Coming across dumping grounds that have been used as shooting galleries isn’t uncommon, according to Keith, but this was the largest instance she’d seen.

Much of what she and her team found was material that would not go to a landfill and could have been dealt with free of charge instead – items such as electronics which can be taken to Sarcan and metals that can be taken to local scrap yards.

She was also surprised at how few tires they found, saying they retrieved only a couple compared to the more than 20 the year before.

Unauthorized dumping sites like this one aren’t uncommon in Saskatchewan, but Keith said Nisbet Forest has some ideal qualities making it a preferred dumping ground.

“There is a lot of road access to it, and of course it’s not as visible when you’re dumping in the forest rather than along open roads,” she said. 

In 2015 the Ministry of Environment collected 4,000 kilos of garbage from illegal dumpsites in and around Prince Albert.

 

ssterritt@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit