Old Snow

I think today's picture (check title) matches well with yesterday's blip (New Snow). Jan is standing in front of a pile of snow scraped up from the ground as winter starts to come to an end.
Snow can be so beautiful, but it can be pretty grungy by the end of winter, mixed up with gravel, sand, dust, and various pollutants gathered through the winter.
When we first arrived here in the mid 80's the snow was carted off to a site on the edge of the sea, where a hill of snow slowly grew. The hill could grow to 15 or 20 metres high. Once spring arrived the snow melted and drained into the sea. This was the traditional way to deal with snow but eventually someone tested the run-off  and it was realised the snow (and the water melting away) was full of heavy metals and other nasty pollutants.  Nowadays the snow taken away from town is collected in a special area with a sealed base so the meltwater is filtered in various ways before being released into the environment.
In Sundsvall the giant snow heap is placed just outside the hospital and then covered up as summer arrives. The snow is then used to cool the air for the hospital's air conditioning system. An elegant solution...