A number of residents have reached out to ask what’s going on at the hill in Civic Park on Kimberly. I wanted to share some information I received from the Water & Waste Department in response to your questions.
As you may know, the hill is the site of a closed/former landfill, and the city has a routine monitoring program in place to ensure that the buried waste isn’t impacting the environment. You can read all about that monitoring program here: https://www.winnipeg.ca/services-programs/recycling-garbage/garbage-disposal/closed-landfill-monitoring
With regard to what’s currently happening at the Kimberly landfill site right now:
- The city is currently completing a cap remediation project on the hills at Kimberly Landfill that included placing a clay-silt cap material over the site, followed by a growing medium consisting of a compost/topsoil mixture.
- The area was then seeded using the City of Winnipeg Parks seed mix along with clover while being protected with an erosion-control blanket made of biodegradable straw to help minimize erosion caused by wind and rainfall while the vegetation becomes established.
More background on closed landfills and the Kimberly landfill:
- In 2015, the Province of Manitoba mandated that the City conduct and publicly post a disposition study for our closed landfill sites. The study aims to be updated every 10 years.
- The 2015 Disposition Study conducted by Golder Associates is the most recent completed study, and the recommended improvements have been completed, or are nearing completion, across all 33 closed landfill sites.
- The City is currently in the early planning stages of having another comprehensive study completed in 2027.
Kimberly Landfill is monitored annually through landfill gas (methane) monitoring, water-level measurements, and water sampling at the monitoring probes located onsite. Monitoring also includes Terry Sawchuk Arena and surrounding residential properties within the designated control zone.
Thank you to the Waste & Waste department for providing this helpful info!