SEWERS, SEWERS AND MORE SEWERS
Kitchener, Cambridge and Elmira all seem to be discussing sanitary sewers these days. Yes sanitary sewers are the ones most associated with toilets and your local STP (sewage treatment plant). Politicians and bureaucrats seem to favour Wastewater Treatment Plants as their chosen name.
As recently as this month Councillor Bauman at Woolwich Council has indicated that more work still needs to be done to seperate storm water (ie. rain) flows from the sanitary sewers. Apparently above and beyond the issues of eavestroughs and sump pumps in the Birdland subdivision in Elmira being hooked up to the sanitary sewers, is storm water in St. Jacobs physically entering holes in sanitary sewer manhole covers.
In yesterday's K-W Record, Terry Pender wrote an article about sewer pipe upgrades for the City of Kitchener titled " Population increase in Kitchener will prompt sewer pipe upgrades". We are advised that most sewer pipes contents flow by gravity to the STP although there are 23 pumping stations in Kitchener's system to assist the flow towards the STP. Also we are advised that the older the system the more sewage backups occur. Hence Kitchener had five sewage backups (as often into basements of houses) in 2010, Waterloo had ten backups and the prize goes to Cambridge which had thirteen backups.
Speaking of Cambridge they have been experiencing horrible backups pre Christmas into homes, most probably as a result of trucks taking pumped out sewage from the new Conestoga College location and dumping it down manholes in a residential subdivision. For more info about this please see the link to the right which will take you to the Cambridge Advocate website.
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Hi, Just wondering if you have any knowledge on the laws pertaining to sewer backups and what the results were of the ones mentioned above?
ReplyDeleteor in regards to the above - have contact info that I can send more direct questions to?
ReplyDeleteThanks.
I don't believe that there are laws per se in regards to sewer backups into people's homes. In Elmira the problem is excess flows of clean water (eaves & sumps) overwhelming the STP and thus untreted sewage being released downstrem. In cambridge it appears as if the City bear some responsibility if they've been allowing trucks to dump down manholes in a residential area. this is just plain dumb. As for contacts I would suggest that you try your local Municipal Councillor first, whomever that may be. If unsucessful or slow then phone the City's Public Works Department directly and ask to speak to their Director about your questions and concerns. Good luck !
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