Located in the southeast quadrant, The City's Shepard Landfill manages nearly one-third of Calgary's garbage.
The City of Calgary purchased the land east of the existing Shepard Landfill in 1981 for the purpose of future expansion of the Shepard Landfill to meet Calgary's waste management needs. Race City Motorsports Inc. has been leasing 160 acres of this City-owned land since 1985.
Why does The City need the land?
There are three pressing needs for the land.
- The City may need to use some of the land for landfilling waste as early as 2015.
- The City of Calgary is bound by provincial legislation to protect the environment surrounding this land. One important part of this obligation is to capture storm water to confirm that it doesn't contain anything that could contaminate surrounding wetlands, rivers and other parts of the water table. The responsibility extends to the entire site, not just the existing landfill area.
- Additionally, part of the leased land, including the site where the track now sits, is also required to widen 114 Avenue SE in order to provide a connection to Stoney Trail, which is scheduled to open in the southeast in 2013.
A new storm water management system
The Shepard Landfill has grown over the past several years to meet the needs of a growing city. As a result, its existing storm water management systems are rapidly becoming too small to handle the volume of storm water. A new system needs to be built on the land east of the existing landfill.
Before the new system can be built and before any landfilling, The City needs to complete extensive environmental testing and obtain required regulatory approvals from Alberta Environment, which could take a few years to accomplish. The process has already begun, but full access to the entire site is needed to complete the work.
Can the storm water system be built around Race City?
No, the system cannot be built around the Race City site without significant complications and expense. To maintain landfill approval from Alberta Environment, The City needs to ensure it is in control of all the storm water run-off on the entire site. If Race City or another organization holds a portion of the site, The City can't guarantee that drainage from that portion would not enter the landfill.
