Early results of stormwater program show needs

Luke Edwards

Advocate Correspondent

They’ve only dipped their proverbial toes in the stormwater pond investigations, and yet members of one of Norfolk County’s newest teams are finding a lot.

The stormwater management program, which began earlier this year, has had staff out working to identify what stormwater infrastructure exists in Norfolk, and what deficiencies exist. Not only are they finding shortfalls when it comes to preventative management, they’re also finding pipes and infrastructure the county didn’t know existed.

“What we’re finding in the field is a little bit scary,” said Andrew Grice, general manager of environmental and infrastructure services, at the Nov. 13 council-in-committee meeting.

In recent years the provincial government has put new requirements on municipalities when it comes to stormwater management. Following the Walkerton e. coli crisis of 2000, towns and cities were forced to ramp up water and wastewater programs. However, Grice said stormwater long remained “the poor cousin when it comes to the water game.”

More extreme storms from climate change have changed that calculus, though. Norfolk’s stormwater management program began in May and the first major responsibility is simply mapping out what they have to confirm what’s in the ground lines with what’s documented.

On that front, staff have found catch basins, pipes and other infrastructure that hasn’t been mapped.

“There’s 60 kilometres of stormwater that did not exist in our asset management strategy already,” said Chris Dunn, project manager of stormwater maintenance.

“This could account to $80 million of replacement cost we were not anticipating.”

Staff have also found various examples of vegetation overtaking inlets, outlets, and stormwater ponds. Other issues identified include sediment in ponds that will need to be cleared out, cracks in the lining in need of repair, and cross bores in stormwater pipes where utilities companies drilled through.

While Dunn said these issues aren’t cause for immediate panic, they are things that need attention and should be looked after. 

However, the county doesn’t currently have a budget for CCTV inspections of stormwater, which would give staff a more fulsome picture of issues such as cross bores that can’t easily be seen from the outside.

Additionally, in the six months since the stormwater management project began, staff have only managed to cover about 10 per cent of the urban stormwater infrastructure they’re aware of.

“We’ve found tens of millions of dollars in repairs on 10 per cent of the infrastructure we’re aware that we have?” said Coun. Alan Duthie.

“I hope that the rest is in better shape,” responded Dunn.

It all may be quite daunting, but Grice said they’re not alone, with other municipalities facing similar challenges. There’s currently no dedicated provincial funding, only pockets of funding here and there, but staff in Norfolk and beyond are advocating for a provincial funding program. Mayor Amy Martin also suggested getting as much information together as they can to present to provincial colleagues at the upcoming Rural Ontario Municipalities Association conference.