Sudbury's snow dump sees more than just the white stuff

Perhaps the best place to gauge what the winter's been like is somewhere the average Sudburian will never see — the city's snow dump off Lasalle Boulevard.

While it's surrounded by rocky hills and trees, it is a very busy place in the winter time.

City of Greater Sudbury operations manager Randy Halverson says between 4,000 and 5,000 truckloads are dumped every winter. 

That about 69,000 cubic metres of snow — enough to fill Toronto's Air Canada Centre.

Most of that snow comes from private parking lots, instead of city streets, as Halverson says only about 1,500 of those truckloads is from city crews. The city stores most of its snow on the sides of streets.

The private contractors also contribute to city coffers, with between $20,000 and $70,000 in snow dump fees paid every winter.

Of course, more than just snow gets dumped here.

In the spring or summer  — depending how long it takes the mountains of snow to finally melt — crews come back to clean up the trash that gets picked up by plows, and usually include a few mangled shopping carts.