Resident consensus in the wake of this summer’s flooding in Niagara-on-the-Lake is that current and planned in-ground stormwater infrastructure is inadequate.
Homeowners from Old Town to St. Davids and elsewhere contend the town’s sewer systems simply can’t handle the amount of water major storms have unleashed. They think more development will just exacerbate the problem. The mayor has a different viewpoint.
This week in part 3 of Summer of the Flood, we take a look at the town’s storm infrastructure.
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Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa concedes that the major storms that hit Niagara-on-the-Lake this summer were overwhelming but he says the town’s sewer infrastructure meets all the necessary standards.
Areas of the community’s of St. Davids and Queenston were particularly hard hit.
“(The) storm sewer has been designed as per guidelines set by the province and the region and municipality, and each particular part of St. Davids has been built out properly to those standards,” said Zalepa told The Lake Report in an interview.
He agreed, however, that this summer’s major downpours — which were well above the design capabilities of current underground piping and stormwater ponds — are challenging those standards.
“What we’re having is natural rain events which are putting strain on the system because those rain events are in excess of the capacity of the system.”
The storms that tore through NOTL in June and July, backing up storm sewers, flooding streets and properties in rural and urban areas, caused incredible damage.
One area particularly hard hit is the west end of St. Davids, where new development in recent years has overtaken a part of town that was once open fields susceptible to natural seepage and flow.
And now, with two major storms happening within the span of a month, delivering huge amounts of rain in a short time, a movement has arisen to question the current criteria for establishing anticipated rainfall standards.
That criteria is paramount in the approval process for new development in NOTL.
For instance, at Win and Kal Laar’s home in Queenston on June 18, more than 100 millimetres of rain was measured in just one hour, well above the capacity standards for all of NOTL’s stormwater infrastructure.
“I don’t have an answer for you as to what the capacity is,” said Zalepa. “I would have to get that from (town) staff.”
Director of operations Darren McKenzie was not available for an interview prior to deadline to confirm the town’s rainfall capacity.
However, town staff are reviewing and updating what constitutes a 100-year-storm rainfall level.
Staff has been directed to “consult with the relevant appropriate agencies” to consider a pair of recommendations.
The first recommendation is to look into “increasing the criteria used in the modelling for the 100-year average of Lake Ontario from 76.15 metres as identified in the (Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority) Lake Ontario Shoreline Management Plan (2009) to account for our changing climate.”
The second recommendation is to look into “increasing the engineering design criteria” from the one in 100-year storm event, “which has been used for decades and doesn’t address (the) increase in intensity, duration and frequency of extreme rainfall events.”
Once the information is submitted, council will decide on the action needed, said Coun. Sandra O’Connor, who is pushing for changes.
O’Connor hopes town staff will be able to propose a solid definition on how much the storm management criteria needs to change.
“The engineering societies and the conservation authorities and the governments are all recognizing that it’s a new norm now but nobody has come out and said, ‘We need to increase it to this,’ ” said O’Connor.
Currently, to be considered a 100-year storm in Niagara, four inches (101.6 mm) of rain must fall in 12 hours, while a 500-year storm is equal to 11 inches (279.4 mm) over the same period of time.
Staff is expected to present its report answering by the end of September.
When it comes to development that has yet to happen, but is in front of council for consideration — such as Tawny Ridge Estates in St. Davids — Zalepa said the town has approved the development, but with a “holding zone.”
“The holding is to permit the development agreements to be created, which will detail out all the infrastructure and the servicing requirements for the properties,” he said.
“So, we’re going to have to get data from proper sources to determine if indeed there needs to be a change in the infrastructure, kind of an allotment to decide to manage higher flows.”
Four Mile Creek Drain Report
The Lake Report has learned that a recommendation to request an engineering report for the Four Mile Creek Municipal Drain has been in town records for years.
The April 19, 2021, staff report suggests that more development in St. Davids will put the area at risk of increased flooding.
It was authored by Brett Ruck, who was irrigation and drainage superintendent for the town at the time, and included a number of his own observations and recommendations.
He pointed out that larger scale developments, such as subdivisions with more land and denser housing and road allowances, contribute to a more extensive change in land use.
“The increase in more impermeable surfaces and landscaping features, such as lawns, also significantly intensify the rate and volume of run-off in comparison to the original property,” he said.
“Without a new engineer’s report to improve or extend the Four Mile Creek Municipal Drain upstream, the watercourse cannot be improved to deal with the increased flows and sediment problems it is currently subject to, and flooding and property damage may continue.”
In other words, information has been available for town officials for years indicating that, as a result of new development, infrastructure isn’t capable of handling stormwater levels, and that damage to properties could continue.
Zalepa said he is unaware of the 2021 report, but none-the-less does not agree with Ruck’s conclusion.
Rushing water over impermeable surfaces such as streets and sidewalks is part of residential drainage plans that need to be submitted by developers before approval, he said.
“In theory, each application or development is supposed to manage its water,” he said.
“So what that means is the functional service report that they will have to submit is going to have to show, from an engineering perspective, that they can manage their water on-site and not create an overflow issue with areas around them.”
That doesn’t appear to be the case when looking back at flooding in St. Davids and Queenston during the two major storms, which included rushing water flows that were in some cases more than ankle deep and enveloping residential streets, yards and ditches.
For now, Zalepa is happy with the way things are progressing.
“And I am confident that each of those applications that are in front of us are going through the proper process to adequately design a system that will manage their stormwater for their site,” he said.
Council has also requested a staff report regarding storm pond capacities, he added, once again making a concession, this time admitting some ponds were not large enough to contain the stormwater.
The problem, he said, is some stormwater ponds paid for and built by a developer could be receiving water due to seepage from other nearby properties.
“If (water) is coming from areas that shouldn’t be contributing to those storm ponds, then we have a bit of an issue.”
Zalepa said council has asked staff to conduct an audit to see if any properties are incorrectly actually contributing water to these storm ponds.
“Sometimes these other properties that are adjacent, they have had site plans done on them where they’ve had buildings added or farm buildings added or houses added, and their site plan dictates where their water is supposed to be going, and if their water is not going where it’s supposed to be, then they’ve got to deal with that,” he said.
More money sought for infrastructure
Zalepa’s confidence in the state of current and proposed infrastructure isn’t shared by O’Connor.
“I think that the whole council realizes that the current infrastructure needs to be updated and maintained, not only for the amount of rain water we are getting but also for its age,” she told The Lake Report.
A big problem, she said, is a lack of investment in municipalities from the two highest levels of government when it comes to essential services.
“Over the last couple of decades, the federal and provincial governments have really reduced their funding for infrastructure for municipalities,” she said.
For her part, O’Connor will be asking NOTL council to back a Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ initiative to push the federal government to increase infrastructure funding.
She will be asking council this month to support the federation’s call for more infrastructure money from senior levels of government.
In July, the federation published a written submission to the federal government as part of consultations ahead of next year’s budget.
Signed by federation president Geoff Stewart, it details the organization’s recommendations on a number of issues — infrastructure, with specific references to water, wastewater, climate change and disaster mitigation, was number three on his list.
Stewart recommends “that the federal government partner with local governments to address the urgent water and wastewater infrastructure gap and fully implement the national adaptation strategy to address growing risks from climate change and extreme weather.”
“Additionally,” the statement continued, “municipalities need long-term funding for disaster mitigation, adaptation and natural infrastructure, while supporting resilient, low-carbon housing and communities.”
O’Connor believes that there will be some political motivation to provide municipalities with the money needed to maintain safe and healthy communities.
“With elections looming, I think this would be something that they would be interested in supporting, and that’s what we’re hoping for,” she said.
The next fixed federal election date is Oct. 20, 2025.
Next: In Part 4 of Summer of the Flood we look wastewater infrastructure and talk to town staff about a planned study for the Four Mile Creek Watershed.
