Calgary residents frustrated by recurring fallout from "garbage tornado"

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Rain, shine, or wind, this pair pounds the pavement in Calgary southeast every day. But for the last little while, a walk along the Shepard landfill has produced a disappointing sight. There's geese that um have babies in this one all the time every year. Um there's ducks and everything else. There's a heron who visits these ponds as well, and it's just really sad for the wildlife. This is what a calm day along 130th Avenue southeast looks like. But a little less than a month ago, it was a wild scene. Winds around 80 km/h were whipping thousands of pieces of garbage into the air, and at the time, folks in the neighborhood were frustrated to see it happening yet again. It's just ridiculous here, as you can see. We This is the extreme, but like I said, when the wind's 20-30 km, this is an occurrence all the time. City crews worked to clean up the area, even being called in for overtime. But for Monique Trudeau and her husky Storm, who's got a nose for garbage herself, they still notice the aftermath. None of the garbage directly in the ponds ever got cleaned up, and now it's just an environmental hazard sitting there to damage the pond itself, and of course all the wildlife. Fencing is in place along the bottom of the landfill, and the city deploys mobile catch barriers at the top. When the wind is blowing, the city says it'll say no to certain materials or cover things up. But the area counselor says that current combo isn't working well enough.

[00:01:22]>> As the landfill grows, you know, and and the amount of debris, you know, gets more, you need a better physical barrier to stop in the case of wind. Ward 12 Councillor Hike Jameson says he'll be meeting with the city's waste and recycling services department soon.

[00:01:36]Neighbors here are hoping the next windy walk is cleaner for humans, dogs, and everything else that calls the area home. Skyler Peters, Global News.