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Lucknow residents who had basements flood with sewage at the end of
December should have check-valves installed in their homes and, if they
do have those in place, the units must have malfunctioned.
That's the word from Laurie Cox, project manager with Veolia Water
Canada, who spoke to Huron-Kinloss council during the general committee
meeting March 2.
At the Feb. 17 council meeting, a group of affected residents asked the
township to investigate the incident and discover who is responsible to
compensate the homeowners for their losses.
Cox told council that, as the system operator, Veolia cannot simply
bypass the system and dump raw sewage into the Nine Mile River. "We
don't do that lightly but we had to do it that night," he said.
"Otherwise the gravity main was going to blow out of the ground and
you'd have raw sewage spilling into the river for an extended time,
rather than a controlled spill."
Another partial bypass was done the following day and samples were taken
of what was being released, he said. Both the Ontario Ministry of the
Environment (MOE) and the Grey Bruce Health Unit were contacted about
the incident, he added.
Given the complaints by the homeowners that the bypass should have
continued for a longer period of time, Cox noted that the MOE does not
allow a bypass at all, except in extreme cases. He said the facility is
inspected every two years and if an action were considered
inappropriate, the township could be charged.
(next column)
17/03/2009 03:51 PM
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He said homeowners in low-lying areas should have check-valves installed
to protect their homes from having sewage back up during a flood. "We
received only a couple of complaints of sewage in basements."
Councillor Lillian Abbott said one person, who complained to council,
said the MOE assured her that it is not in the business of allowing
sewage to spill into people's basements. "We're the water
operator," said Cox. "You are the owner. If you want us to increase
bypass numbers to protect landowners, we can do that. A bypass is also
used to combat high levels of water which could damage electrical
components in the pumping station."
He said the odd weather after Christmas last year caused a major thaw
right to the ground, which is unusual for this area. "If you bypass a
lot, then the MOE dictates that there's a problem with your system and
you need to repair it," said Cox "Normally, your system in Lucknow is
relatively low for that population. Flood conditions create the
problem."
"My concern is we have a system that is being operated the way it was
designed," said councillor Jim Hanna. "If we want to make any changes,
we have to deal with the MOE and that's not fun. I think we're better
off to tell the homeowners to get check-valves installed or replaced if
they don't work."
"I agree," said mayor Mitch Twolan. "I'm not sure we want to change our
Certificate of Approval for that system."
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