FLOOD RISK TOO MUCH
Owners won’t take holiday
After experiencing horrible basement flooding in 2008, 2010, 2016 and again last month, residents of upscale townhouses on the south side of Riverside Drive say they are afraid to go away for a vacation.
“Because they’re afraid of what they’ll come back to,” says Mel Figar, president of the Vanderbilt Crescent residents association. Figar and Phil Dupuis, president of the Sand Point Court residents association, are demanding solutions to flooding problems that keep coming back despite efforts to redirect downspouts and install backflow valves.
“Around here, when I get three inches of rain, my sump pump is working constantly. It just won’t stop,” said Figar. He said the problem is not just the freakishly heavy rainfalls one year ago and in late August that no system could withstand. He and Dupuis say the problem is the townhouses were built at a lower level than the surrounding area and there is something wrong with the design of the sewer system.
“I have a backflow valve. Guess what? I still get water in my basement,” Figar said.
A special meeting is being held Oct. 5, prior to Coun. Irek Kusmierczyk’s Ward 7 meeting, so residents can discuss their flooding woes with city officials. They are particularly upset the city is going ahead with a new subdivision just to the west of them, on city-owned land that used to be the site for the Tecumseh water treatment plant. They believe adding more homes to the area will make matters worse.
“To put in a new subdivision at a time when everyone is struggling with water in their basements, it just doesn’t make sense,” said Dupuis.
The homes — 26 units on Sand Point and 44 on Vanderbilt — sit beside and below the Ganatchio Trail just east of Lakeview Park Marina. One recently sold for $377,000, Figar said.
“This isn’t old Riverside (where basement flooding has been a chronic problem). This is East Riverside. This is brand new stuff — 10 to 15 years old.”
However, the city’s engineer, Mark Winterton, says it’s “categorically untrue” that the new subdivision will make matters worse. Council approved hiring an independent engineering firm to address the residents’ concerns. One of the recommendations was to use an existing pipe — once used to bring water to the treatment plan — to send all the storm water from the subdivision into the river. So the new subdivision will be putting no water into the storm sewer system, said Winterton.
“This subdivision (which the city is developing) will not negatively impact their homes.”
The city is preparing to develop the property and sell the lots, for 20 single-family homes and 20 to 25 townhouses, said planner Jim Abbs, who also says claims that the subdivision will cause sewage problems for neighbouring homes is not true.
But even if the new subdivision isn’t a concern, the residents “absolutely have every right to be concerned,” said Coun. Kusmierczyk, who recently presented a petition from the residents to council, asking for solutions.
“I completely understand the frustration. When you’ve been flooded two or three times, you’re frustrated and looking for answers.”
Kusmierczyk said this is a situation where perhaps the city should fund a “micro-study” to identify problems in a small area and come up with solutions.
“Can we basically spend a little time here to see OK, what’s the grading like? Do people have backflow valves? Are they installed properly? Do they have downspouts disconnected — all of that stuff.” At the same time, he said, the residents’ concerns should be examined to answer their questions about system capacity, elevations and other issues.
Winterton and his staff have done tests of the city sewers serving the area, looking for any bad cross-connections, breaks, dips, cracks or obstructions, and found no culprit. The height of the subdivision and its sewer pipes relative to the rest of the area is not an issue, he said, nor is the fact these are cul de sacs where the sewer pipes dead-end.
“What I’m saying is the city system is working as intended,” he said.
When there are “major, major events” — like the 2016 and 2017 floods — some homes connected to the city’s sewage system can suffer flooding when the system is overwhelmed, Winterton said.
Homes need to be “hydraulically separated” from the system using the methods subsidized by the city’s basement flooding protection subsidy plan, he said. It offers 100 per cent subsidies up to $2,800 to pay for such devices as backflow valves and sump pumps and to disconnect foundation drains from the floor drain. Homeowners might also need to hire a plumbing contractor to test for any flaws in there systems.
On Wednesday, council’s environment, transportation and public safety standing committee will examine an exhaustive study of the Sept. 29, 2016 flooding. The report was completed Aug. 28, one day before a worse storm flooded more than 6,500 basements.
Winterton said the solutions proposed in that report still apply. This includes: finishing all the camera work to find out exactly how the sewer systems are working as part of the sanitary and storm sewer master plan; increasing the number of people taking advantage of the subsidy program (currently there is only a seven per cent uptake and people usually only apply after they’ve been flooded); and continuing with infrastructure improvements. The city has increased spending on sewers “significantly” from $122 million from 2001 to 2008, to the $273 million spent from 2009 to 2016.
The capital budget calls for $37 million this year, and almost $100 million the following four years.
“I wish I had all the solutions in place so nobody ever flooded again,” said Winterton, explaining none of the solutions is a magic bullet. “Believe me, nobody would like that more than I would.”