By Natalie Johnson
As the city nears the detailed design phase of its plan to replace Little Italy’s century-old sewer, the Preston Street BIA is protesting that it is nothing but a trade-off of flooded basements for flooded streets.
The construction, set to begin this June, is a response to the recognition that the current sewer’s capacity is no longer adequate. In past years, heavy downpours have taxed the system, causing sewage to back into Preston Street basements and flow into the Ottawa River untreated.
The city’s solution is to replace the existing brick sewer with a new, larger pipe for increased volume, says municipal rehabilitation program manager Richard Holder.
The system will remain combined, meaning the new pipe will convey both storm water and sanitary sewage.
The volume of water into the sewer will be restricted to prevent overflow. As a result, the run-off will pool in the road.
It is the way all new subdivisions are designed, he says.
But the Preston Street BIA, which speaks for the area’s businesses, strongly opposes the idea of “using the streets as sewers,” says executive director Lori Mellor. Deep puddles on the roadways would limit customer access to businesses.
They could also deter customers completely.
“We’re trying to create a pedestrian-friendly neighbourhood, but we’re also an arterial route for trucks,” she says. “A truck can come by and absolutely drench them.”
But she says she also perceives a larger, more troublesome problem – lack of planning.
“If the city is going to be ponding water on the surface, it’s obvious to us that the capacity of the sewer is not large enough for what they anticipate the rainfall to be,” she says.
Mellor says the BIA thinks the best solution is to use a separate system, in which surface run-off enters its own pipe, she says.
The storm water could be transported from the streets to the river without undergoing sanitary waste treatment.
This would mean that only a storm-water pipe would need to be installed. City staff has largely ignored the recommendation, she says.
“They’re trying to move forward and ignore our concerns. I’m really worried about that.”
But Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes says she supports the BIA’s scheme.
“I’m trying to get more funding for the sewers in that plan.”
Ravi Mehta, the project’s program manager, says while the system design is not yet final, it was chosen for a reason. Several years ago, the city decided that a very large area would use a combined system.
“If you want to go back and put in a separated system along Preston Street, it really does no good unless you do every other pipe in the entire area,” he says.
In terms of street flooding, he says, a separated system would not offer improved service. The pipe would be the same size, so water would collect on the road at the same rate.
In both cases, a downpour liable to overwork the system was only likely to happen once every five years, according to Mehta.
“From the BIA’s point of view, I can understand that they don’t want the water flooding. But whether we do a separated system or a combined system, we’re going to end up with the same amount of water on the street.”
The choice, he says, is between water in the basement and water on the road.