YOU ASKED: A new structure is being built in Kenna Cartwright Park. We assume that it’s City crews doing the work, but what is it for? Many of the hikers who frequent the park had the same practical suggestions as to its end use.
— Al
OUR ANSWER: Just looking at the photo you submitted, this definitely had us stumped. A storage shed? A bird-viewing stand?
To solve the mystery, we turned to City employee Kelly Johnston, whose job title is natural resource section leader.
“It’s a composting toilet,” said Johnston.
As it turns out, the City is building two such toilets in the park — one on Reservoir Trail, the other about four kilometres away on Ponderosa Trail.
The new toilets are meant to replace existing port-a-potties in the park, which are troublesome to maintain and not terribly friendly to the environment because of the sewage truck that drives into the park to empty the tanks.
The composting toilets, on the other hand, are very friendly to Mother Nature. They turn waste material into organic matter, which can “be spread out into the forest,” said Johnston.
“It turns it into, basically, soil.”
City carpenters are building the surrounding structures that will house the actual toilets made by an Alberta company.
The toilets are expected to be ready for their first flush in May and will be open to all park users.
And the units sound fairly easy to maintain. Park staff who regularly patrol Kenna Cartwright Park on foot or mountain bike simply need to crank a handle on the back of the unit every so often to turn the compost material.
