Woman fears dustbowls where Iqaluit dumps its snow

Iqaluit resident Janet Armstrong says when this dirty snowdrift in Lower Iqaluit melts, the dirt will smother any tundra vegetation under it. That will leave a mosquito-infested puddle in the spring and a dustbowl in the summer. Visible in front of the drift are tracks where snow-moving equipment has scraped the thin layer of vegetation off the ground. (PHOTO BY GABRIEL ZÁRATE)

Dusty snowdrifts are destroying Iqaluit’s living tundra a concerned resident told Nunatsiaq News this week.

Janet Armstrong, who has lived for 25 years in Iqaluit, worries that if the city doesn’t start doing more effective planning on where it dumps snow, natural vegetation in the city may become a thing of the past.

Pointing to a drift mixed with dirt and snow, Armstrong said, “This corner used to be flowers and tundra grass… It’s dead now.”

When the city dumps snow on top of living vegetation, the mixed-in dirt remains after the snow has melted away.

That leaves sand and dirt on top of the vegetation, which smothers it, Armstrong said.

Less vegetation means more erosion, as the roots of the plants are no longer there to hold the earth in place.

Armstrong worries that if as vegetation dies, the result will be more dust and less drainage.

Without drainage, Armstrong said, there will be more stagnant puddles, creating breeding grounds for mosquito larvae.

Limited by the short growing season, Arctic vegetation is notoriously slow-growing.

Armstrong worries that once a patch of tundra has died it will take years to recover, if ever.

She was especially concerned about dumping on slopes, which are particularly vulnerable to erosion when vegetation dies.

Snowdrifts are also being piled on top of culverts, blocking water flow and probably causing more water pooling as the spring thaw continues.

In some cases, snowdrifts mar areas that Armstrong thinks should be kept visually attractive for tourists, such as Iqaluit’s cemetery.

Armstrong said the city is plowing its roads as if its small streets were highways, leaving massive drifts wherever there’s room.

In many cases, barren dirt is visible at the foot of the drifts, showing where the plows have scraped off fragile Arctic vegetation.

More than once, Armstrong has spoken to work crews from the city’s department of public works as they plowed the streets in her neighbourhood of Lower Iqaluit.

They’ve always been polite with her, but in the end their instructions are to put the snow where it will fit.

Armstrong has worked for the city in the past on contract to lay down sod to restore tundra in the city core.

Some of the very places where she worked have been covered by snowdrifts this year, damaging what the city paid her to create.

“It’s very hard to help out the tundra that’s had snow dumped on it because it’s gone,” she said.

Armstrong said the city needs to develop and enforce a bylaw on where snow can be dumped, That bylaw needs to include homeowners, businesses and the city’s public works department, she argued.

“They [the City of Iqaluit] need to create a policy to preserve the green spaces we already have,” she said.