The repercussions of last September’s significant rainfall event are trickling down into the wallets of some frustrated Collingwood condo owners who saw sewage flood their basements, and are now looking to the town to help clean up the mess.
During Monday’s (April 11) development and operations services standing committee meeting, councillors received the 2021 wastewater performance report, which highlighted details of the town's wastewater findings, while also outlining the town’s response to major wastewater events over the past year.
As part of the consent agenda for the meeting, a letter from Simcoe Standard Condominium Corporation’s board of directors was also received, which outlined how a major flood event in September impacted Side Launch Village in the Shipyards development.
On Sept. 22 and 23, a bypass/overflow event occurred at the wastewater treatment plant and at the Minnesota Street sewage pumping station. As a result, some of Collingwood’s wastewater went into Georgian Bay — untreated — during the heavy rainfall.
To read our full story on this event, click here.
According to the letter, six of 14 units in the Side Launch Village development also experienced sewage back-up flooding into their basements as a result of the event.
“Our homeowners suffered substantial loss, and subsequently, our insurance costs have skyrocketed. Our corporation insurance has risen 20 per cent and our deductible has increased from $10,000 to $50,000 for next year,” noted Donna Brazelton, president of the Simcoe Standard Condominium Corporation in her letter, which was co-signed by other members of the condo board.
“We expect our individual homeowner policies will be similarly impacted,” she said.
The condo corporation says as a direct result of the sewage back-up flooding, they believe their properties have been devalued.
The corporation requested the town provide an official report regarding the events of Sept. 22 which could be provided to their insurance companies.
“We also need reassurance from the town that the problem has been rectified and our homeowners can repair their homes with confidence. We’re sure you can appreciate the trepidation we feel every time a heavy rainfall is forecast,” wrote Brazelton.
Director of Public Works, Engineering and Environmental Services Peggy Slama provided an overall update on the event and addressed some of the condo corporation’s concerns during Monday’s meeting.
Calling the storm event “unusual,” Slama said during these kinds of events the town’s sanitary collection system will experience problems, and when that happens they automatically overflow and bypass the plant into the bay.
“These situations occurred during this high-flow event,” she said. “Following this storm event, an operations review would occur. We learned from this...new procedures were documented to be followed during a similar storm.”
The rainfall on Sept. 22/23 caused the level and flow rates in the Pretty River to rise to record levels not seen since 2016, and the second-highest levels on record since 2006.
Slama noted that funds were included in the 2022 budget to prioritize projects that would reduce the risk of these types of events from happening in the future. She said sanitary back ups and back-water valves were two such projects that were being discussed with the condo corporation specifically. Manager of
Environmental Services Heather McGinnity also noted that details of the event were sent to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks and they were satisfied by the actions taken by town staff in responding to the event.
Chief executive officer Sonya Skinner said the town would reach out to the condo corporation to discuss further offline in the coming days.
“We would be happy to continue to meet with the condo corporations from the Shipyards,” said Skinner.
Another major event noted as part of the 2021 wastewater compliance report included a Christmas Eve overflow event, which saw about 100 cubic metres of partially digested sludge escape the digester. While most of the sludge was contained on-site, it did approach the south end of the site close to the trail system. The cause of that event was attributed to the flushing of rags and wipes.
To read our full story on that event, click here.
In 2021, all final effluent quality objective targets and compliance limits were achieved with the exception of one E.coli event in October.
“This is likely attributable to issues that we had throughout the year with a UV transmittance analyzer and also a missed sampling result due to some issues with a courier,” said McGinnity.
According to the overall report, the average annual day flow at the wastewater treatment plant in 2021 remained at approximately 74 per cent of the rated capacity. The wastewater treatment plant has a rated capacity of 24,548 cubic metres per day. In 2021, the average daily flow was 18,063 cubic metres per day.
“This is comparible to average daily flows observed over the past five years,” said McGinnity.
