Frustration was the key emotion at a city-sponsored meeting held last week.
The City of Humboldt held a public information meeting on storm water and sanitary sewer management on June 21. Over 100 people attended the meeting at the Uniplex to voice their frustration and ask questions.
"There's no doubt that many people in the community have been affected by high water levels," said Mayor Malcolm Eaton. "But no one is more interested in making changes to the system to prevent this from happening again than city council, city staff, and the homeowners who are affected by these events."
Since the storm, the city has been examining all aspects of the storm water and sanitary sewer systems, he said. They've also hired a consultant to help them review and find possible solutions to the problems.
"Solutions do appear to be possible with some changes to the underground infrastructure, but they will also require changes to how homeowners deal with water," he said.
Council has already set aside $90,000 in the 2010 budget to deal with the problem, but more money will be needed. With that in mind, council has ordered city administration to prepare a bylaw to impose a storm water levy on all utility users. Any funds raised by the levy would only be used to fix the problems in the system and maintain the system, Eaton explained.
This meeting was the beginning of a six- to 18-month period of discussion with the public, explained Thomas Goulden, city manager.
Goulden gave a brief presentation describing the city's existing systems and the difference between the storm system and the sanitary system, as well as explaining what happens during major storms.
"Each system is designed separately and should operate separately," Goulden explained. "But when we have major storms that no longer happens."
Even though the two systems are meant to operate separately, during major storms water from the storm water system is flowing into and infiltrating the sanitary sewer system, he explained. There are several possible ways this could happen, including storm water entering through the sanitary sewer manholes, having weeping tile and sump pump systems directing water into the sanitary system, or cracks in manholes and pipes.
The city knows storm water is infiltrating the sanitary system because the average lift station pumps between 300,000 and 400,000 gallons a day, but on April 13, 2.6 million gallons were pumped at Lift Station 1 and Lift Station 5, Goulden noted. The sanitary sewer system is not meant to handle those amounts, he added.
To fix the problem, changes will have to be made by the city and by home and business owners, he stated.
"The city has to ensure the proper operation and maintenance of the systems," Goulden said. But, he added, homeowners and businesses have to ensure the proper placement of downspouts, clear plugged catch basins on the streets in their neighbourhoods, and disconnect their sump pumps and weeping tile systems from the sanitary sewer.
According to Eaton, the city's bylaw has outlawed running sump pump systems and weeping tile into the sanitary sewer since 2001.
Part of the problem arises from the way the bylaw is enforced, he noted. The city passed the bylaw, but sewer inspections are done by Public Health inspectors, so the city has no way of knowing if the rules are being followed. The city is considering doing those inspections themselves, but they would need to get approval from the provincial government.
The other side of the question, Eaton said, is why plumbers and builders aren't following the rules for those systems.
The city is considering doing inspections of all the sump pump and weeping tile systems in the city to make sure they comply with the bylaw, Eaton said. Any homes built before the bylaw was passed, may also be forced to change their systems.
The city also has a list of possible capital projects which would help address the problems, Eaton said. They are considering twinning some of the underground piping in the storm system and running more lines directly to the lagoon to help deal with high water flows during storm events.
"We have some major capital projects under consideration," Eaton explained. "When we have some hard and fast numbers about what some options are going to cost, we need to go back to the community and discuss them."
Questions were also asked about what the city was doing to comply with demands from insurance companies to make changes in the system before homeowners lose their sewer backup coverage.
The city has had no demands from insurance companies about changing the system, Eaton stated.
"We would love to be able to say to your insurance company this is what we're doing," Eaton said. "We've heard it from different people, but we've never heard it from an insurance company."
The city is also considering financial incentives to help homeowners cope with the installation of backflow valves and sump pumps or other changes to their home's systems.
The city will continue to communicate with residents, using the city's web site, their Facebook page, and through ads in the local paper.
