Gary Crawford flooding update

Ward 36 councillor Gary Crawford is promising to ask some tough questions at a meeting scheduled for August 30th with senior staff members of Toronto Water including the Director of Water Infrastructure Management, Michael D’Andrea.

Councillor Gary Crawford tours a flooded basement on Kalmar Avenue

“…my first question to them will be why the hell has this happened.  How did this happen and why?  Yes, we did have a huge mother nature problem with the rain but why did the system fail?  There are some obvious ones, the infrastructure is older.  But that’s going to be one of the first things I need to know,” Crawford says.

Seeking the cause of flooding

The issue of what caused the basement flooding is important to the hundreds of homeowners whose basements were ruined by stormwater and raw sewage on July 15th and August 10th and who now don’t know whether it’s safe to rebuild.

Residents of southwest Scarborough have also become afraid of the rain and Crawford says that’s unacceptable:

“We can’t have people terrified about storm clouds.  People should not be living in that kind of fear.”

Crawford expects the meeting to last up to four hours and says the focus will be on ensuring it doesn’t happen again:

“I will sit down with them and go street by street and ask what’s being done.  in some cases, we will be discussing the issue house by house.”

City worker inspecting sewer on Warden Ave., south of Kingston Rd.

People want answers

The lack of an official cause of the flooding from the city has led to endless speculation. Many people, including master plumber Bill Barber (The Drain Man), think the aging sewers are simply too small.  There’s a lot of talk that the city has cut down on sewer maintenance to save money and many of the sewers are blocked as a result. Others are speculating that new housing developments around St. Clair Avenue, stretching from Warden to east of Midland are overwhelming the sewer system.

Sewers too small?

Crawford says clearly there’s an infrastructure problem and it may be the case that the sewers are too small, but he points to Chine Drive north, which flooded even though the road was resurfaced and the sewers replaced:

“Just rebuilding the street and putting the right infrastructure underneath may not be the answer to what has caused the problem. That’s a longer term thing…Yes the infrastructure needs to be upgraded because it’s an older community but just fixing the infrastructure may not fix the problem,” Crawford says.

Sewers not maintained?

On the Facebook page Flood July 15th there’s been discussion about whether the sewers are not being maintained due to cutbacks at the city.  Crawford says he’s aware of this and wants to find out the extent of the problem from Toronto Water:

“I’ve..heard people communicating with my office that they haven’t seen somebody down on the road maintaining the sewers for years. A lot of the problem may just be sewer maintenance and removing blockages.”

New developments responsible?

Crawford says its possible the new housing developments clustered around Danforth and St. Clair are overwhelming the system but he needs more information, including confirmation that everything runs south.

“It may end up being that yes they all flow through the same pipes. I don’t know if it’s cumulative.  They may not even impact certain areas.”

No quick fix

In his meeting with Toronto Water, Crawford says he’ll be discussing both long and short-term solutions to the problem and warns that major infrastructure improvements will take a very long time.

“These fixes are not going to happen over a couple of years,” Crawford says. The environmental assessments (to replace sewers) take upwards of two years to do.”

Could be seven years before roads dug up

Crawford has been speaking with Councillor Shelley Carroll who represents Ward 33, which was flooded extensively in 2005 and is now undergoing infrastructure improvements.  Crawford says Carroll has told him that they are “.. only now digging up the roads five, six or seven years later.”

“The infrastructure program is a  20 or 30 year program,” Crawford says. “Knowing that, how do we address the individual issues in our community?  This is where we look a proactive short-term things we can do right away.”

A licensed crew working on Pete Dickens’ house on Kalmar Avenue

Short-term solutions

In addition to short-term issues to be addressed by the city, Crawford is encouraging everyone to disconnect their downspout, which sends roof water into the sewers. He says people who flooded should also consider getting a backwater valve and sump pump.

Crawford says it’s important that it’s not just one or two people on the street who disconnect their downspouts and install valves and pumps.

“The short term thing that we can do as a community right now involves the backwater valve and sump pump programs. Once people implemented that, they found that the severity of the complaints and problems diminished because they were addressed through the proactive programs.”

September 19th meeting

Some people have questions not just about the efficacy of backwater valves but also the subsidy program and there will be an opportunity to raise them at a public meeting Crawford has organized for September 19th.

Senior city staff will be on hand to answer questions, including Infrastructure Management Director, Michael D’Andrea as well as engineers and senior staff from various departments including “Stormwater Management”, “Water Infrastructure Management”, “Business Operations” and “Business and Customer Support”.

“We want to answer the individual questions and to reassure the community that we are working collectively together,” Crawford says.  “Even though

Councillor Gary Crawford addresses meeting

some of the answers will be long-term and we can’t fix it overnight, we are aware of what’s happening and we’re working on short-term and long-term plans.”

Councillor Shelley Carroll will also be there to answer questions based on her direct experience in Don Valley East.

In the meantime, Crawford wants to reassure the community that southwest Scarborough is now seriously on the radar for Toronto Water:

“Staff will be proactive and try to react a lot quicker.  The next time a rainstorm comes, city staff, the managers and supervisors will now be ready to react in Scarborough Southwest.”

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