City council admitted there is a flooding problem in the Flour Mill area on Mountain and Leslie Streets and passed a motion July 14 directing staff to seek a solution.
Greg Clausen, general manager of infrastructure services, said his department will present a report to council in September about remedies to the storm water overflow. At the council meeting he said his staff needed the extra time to find out the cost of various options.
Leo Coutu, Bob Daigle, Walter Harris and Mike Chaloux are Mountain Street property owners who said they are fed up with flooding property and basements, caused by water run-off from the nearby hillside.
“It's like Niagara Falls back there when there is a heavy rain,” Coutu said.
The 2009 flood caused close to $30,000 in damages in his basement.
“I had to replace everything — furnace, washer dryer, furniture,” he said. “My insurance company paid for my losses, but will they the next time?”
Coutu said he and other residents blamed construction activities by development company Sal-Dan on the upper slopes of the hill beside their street.
Bob Daigle, a Mountain Street resident for 10 years, said Sal-Dan has improper storm water management on the site. He also criticized the city for not ensuring the proper site controls were enforced.
Landry-Altmann said residents have been affected by flooding on Dell, Perreault, Mountain, and Leslie streets, as well as Percy Avenue.
Walter Harris, a Mountain Street resident and photographer, said his flooding loss was $48,000. He said he was organizing a private meeting for those who want to pursue legal recourse.
“Many people were renters and were not covered by insurance,” Harris said. “Many had substantial losses. Many personal artifacts were lost to them.”
Landry-Altmann said a special meeting of city council was held July 7 to deal with a city insurance report on the storm water problem.
But she said she could not discuss fully the closed July 7 city council meeting, especially the report by the city's insurance company on an engineering study of the cause of the problem.
Landry-Altmann said she made it "loud and clear" the residents affected by flooding want the water diverted from flowing down the hill towards their homes.
At the city council meeting, council approved a plumbing prevention subsidy program that could cover 50 per cent of the cost of plumbing measures designed to reduce the risk of sewer back up and basement flooding from severe storm events.
But Chaloux, who made a presentation to councillors about the damage to private property, said he already had paid for larger sump pump and that would not deal with the amount of water coming off the hill near his house.
He also said the ground in people's backyards was so saturated that usage was restricted and mosquitoes were breeding, causing a potential health problem from West Nile virus.
City seeks solution to flooding problem
The July 14 motion, by Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann, stated:- during the storms of of July 26, 2009 and June 28, 2010 there was a ”significant” amount of water that could be seen flowing from the retention pond at Sunrise Ridge (above the neaighbourhood), and in some areas appeared as a waterfall
- there is a continuous flow of water from this retention pond creating noise and standing water in a ditch behind some properties on Mountain Street
- this “significant” water flow has “greatly” affected the quality of life for homeowners and tenants on Mountain and Leslie Streets being a nuisance for them
- there is likely to be more severe weather events due to the effects of climate change as indicated by documents creating the Greater Sudbury Climate Change Consortium by the Nickel District Conservation Authority on Nov. 12, 2009
- therefore council direct city staff to “prioritize develop a plan and identify a funding source by September 2010 to divert water away from the Sunrise Ridge Development retention pond away from the Mountain and Lesie Street area.
