Even though winter is officially just a week old, it’s already been a long, cold and snowy month in town — particularly for crews plowing, sanding and shoveling — with a lot more forecast for the weekend.

The snow piles at storage sites got so deep, or high, depending on your respective, that the borough requested, and received, permission from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation to dump some of it into the ocean.

While that was routine several decades ago, municipalities nationwide stopped the practice to avoid dumping snow contaminated with road oils and other debris into the water. But this winter has been a deep-snow exception in Wrangell, prompting the request, said Tom Wetor, the borough’s Public Works Department director.

“Typically, we dump in snow storage locations such as the Public Safety Building parking lot, the Kyle Angerman playground (across from the Irene Ingle Public Library), the Parks and Recreation community center parking lot, and the city lot on the corner of Front Street and Campbell Street (next to the WCA Carving Shed),” Wetor said Dec. 18.

“But since all the locations are full, I applied … (to the state) to dump snow in the ocean. As of Monday (Dec. 15), we were cleared to do that.”

Crews have been unloading snow into the water off Campbell Drive by City Hall and at the Marine Service Center, he said.

“We basically have to demonstrate to them that our storage locations are full and there is not enough time to empty them before the next snowfall, in essence that safety is starting to be impacted.”

And time before the next snowfall is short. The National Weather Service on Monday forecast “snow likely” starting Christmas Day, continuing through the weekend, with the additional advisory that snow “could be heavy at times” Friday night through Saturday.

Though with temperatures forecast to reach 38 degrees on Sunday, the more common Southeast Alaska rain could mix with all that snow covering the ground, roofs and boats.

Work has been pretty much nonstop for the operators of snowplows, graders and front-end loaders since the first storm blew into town on Dec. 8: borough crews; the Alaska Department of Transportation, which keeps the airport runway open and the road from the airport to the Zimovia Highway intersection out to about 12-Mile; and multiple private contractors, volunteers, friends and neighbors who struggled to keep up with about three feet of snow over two weeks.

Petersburg reported 40 inches of snow Dec. 8-17.

The borough, which is responsible for all of the public right of ways except the Airport Road and Zimovia Highway, has a fleet of two graders, two loaders and four plow trucks, Wetor said. The five drivers have been starting work between 2 and 5 a.m. “just about every day,” averaging 12- to 16-hour days.

“There have been multiple days of all hands on deck at 2 a.m.” The entire crew had been working every day since the snow started, Wetor said Dec. 18.

One of the plow trucks has a sander mounted on the back and one has a tank and spreader for magnesium chloride for paved roads.

But even with the entire crew on the road, the weather still wins. Last Thursday, Dec. 18, it was so cold that the sand truck drive had to pull into the Public Works shop to break up the sand that had frozen solid in the back of the truck.

In addition to working as dispatcher, Wetor has been behind the wheel several days, helping out during the heaviest snowfall the town has seen in years. “I have driven the plow truck three days (the past week),” he said Dec. 18, compared to just one day in the previous six winters combined.

When not moving snow, the drivers are spreading sand and magnesium chloride to boost the traction on streets. The worst for icy roads, Wetor said, are Evergreen Avenue (colder from Stikine River winds), and Etolin Street and the residential streets up Mount Dewey, with just enough elevation gain to be the first to pick up street ice.

“When the airport gauge says 35 degrees, one of these streets will ice up,” he said.

Even with their best efforts, some streets are just risky. “Don’t drive down St. Michaels if you don’t have to.”

The Port and Harbors Department has its own plow trucks and snowblowers for harbor parking lots, the Marine Service Center, harbor ramps and floats.

While the Port and Harbors crew handles its parking lots, the problem for Public Works is vehicle owners leaving their cars and trucks parked on Church Street and elsewhere, presenting an obstacle for the plows and graders.

“I get it, there are only so many places to go,” Wetor said, adding that people have been OK about getting their vehicles off the roads, “but it could be better.”

No one has been towed, he said, and the police department has helped track down owners who need to move their vehicles so that the plows can do their job.

He noted that same cities in the Lower 48 manage the problem by requiring vehicle owners to park on alternate sides of the street on different days, keeping one side clear for plows each day. But he doesn’t expect that is an answer for Wrangell: “Does Wrangell really want to be told they have to move their car every other day?”

“We just need people to be patient. … We do the best we can. We’re doing what we can, but there’s only so much we can do to fight Mother Nature.”

He added, “For every naysayer, there have been just as many people who have been really positive.”

Wetor reminds residents that the sidewalks in front of their property are their responsibility to keep clear of snow and ice. “We need the community to do their part.”

And even when the snow stops, the single-digit cold of the past week creates its own set of problems. “The work doesn’t go away, it just changes.”

That includes frozen diffusers and the finishing pond at the sewage treatment plant. Staff sets out a hot-air blower and heat lamp to keep everything working, he said. Even so, “we often have to have some people go out to break the ice” at the finishing pond weir.

On the subject of keeping water flowing — and stopping it when a resident has a burst pipe — he offered a reminder: “People should know, ‘Do I have a shut-off valve at my house?’”

If a homeowner needs to turn off the water to stop flooding after a frozen pipe bursts or starts leaking, and they can’t find the shut-off valve at their home, Wetor explained crews need to dig through the packed snow and ice in the street to locate the main valve to the property. That takes time, which is not helpful when the water is spilling into the home.