It was one of the worst struck areas of the Town of Bow Island during the 2006 storm, but the issues with sewage back-up is something residents of School Crescent have dealt with for a long time, and they are tired of it happening as much as they are tired of the aftermath, from the clean-up to the lowered likelihood their homes will be viable if put on the market.
The weather this spring has added to the burden of residents of the crescent, so much so that the annoyance boiled over and became a movement beginning with a petition to town council to rectify the situation.
John Brocklesby, who sits on council and also lives on the crescent, initiated the petition. During Monday’s meeting, when residents gathered together with the town’s representatives to discuss the issue, he said he knew in advance just through talking with various council members that they would take the issue seriously and make solving it a priority. He explained he felt the petition was a way for residents to express nearly 30 years of frustration.
Some of the homes on the crescent have had sewage flood the basement numerous times and because of that while some face increased insurance premiums, others cannot get insurance at all.
Anyone who drives through the crescent can witness for him or herself that the majority of the homes are well-kept, neat and tidy with pretty landscaped yards. It is a typical middle-class suburban neighbourhood, yet residents who have worked tirelessly to ensure their homes are nice are concerned that, if and when the time comes that they want to sell, it will be next to impossible to find a buyer, or at least one willing to pay what market value would be for a home in any other part of the town.
In response to the issues on School Crescent, the town hired MPE Engineering to investigate the cause of the problem, bringing two representatives to Monday’s meeting to talk to the residents about the issue and share what they learned thus far.
The company concluded that the most recent back-up was not the result of inadequacy on the part of the lift station or pump. The report’s conclusion said that the two factors which contributed in part to the sanitary backups were a reduced capacity due to debris (Sanatec put a camera through the sanitary mains and found a blockage just south of the manhole located on the northwest corner of School Crescent) and excessive flow due to inflow and infiltration.
The report explains that inflow and infiltration are issues in older areas of town because older construction practices allowed storm water into the sanitary collection system through direct connections like sump pumps and foundation tile drains or indirectly.
They had four recommendations which included sending a camera through the affected services on the crescent, implementing a maintenance schedule to flush the mains on a regular basis, installing a flow meter downstream and complete a capacity assessment of the lift station with the intent of providing additional capacity.
The meeting brought more information forward for the MPE engineers to consider, including that an issue on the crescent is not always preceded by a storm and that all the water at least in that end of town seems to wind up draining into the crescent. Residents also noted that ground water doesn’t drain well, and that the grate may be too small and certainly becomes easily blocked and backs up during a rain storm. Another issue raised was the creek which picks up the ground water, and that it might be too overgrown in areas or a bank may have crumbled and now not be sloped appropriately.
The engineers requested that residents list incidents and everything they could remember about what was happening environmentally at the time, then provide them with the lists so the matter could be investigated more thoroughly.
Mayor Alan Hyland asked how long it would take before the investigation was complete. He was told it could take some time before all the data was analyzed.
The engineers were invited to attend the next council meeting as well so that, after considering all the data presented, they could give a better idea of how to proceed and how long it would take to come up with a solution.
Residents of the crescent for the most part seemed happy with council’s response to the issue, however one resident stated he is concerned that October’s election may bring a new set of faces to the council table altogether, and he wondered if that group would continue to make the issue on School Crescent a priority.