Harden Environmental Services’ senior hydrologist Stan Denhoed has raised concerns regarding the corner of Wellington Road 32 and Pinebush Road and a Townline Road drainage project in Cambridge/Puslinch.
Denhoed noted roughly a decade ago the 401 overpass in the area was reconstructed and there was a realignment of Wellington Road 32 to intersect with Pinebush Road.
“That realignment led to additional pavement being placed in the area,” and that resulted in a greater amount of runoff that accumulates in the intersection, Denhoed said.
Unfortunately when the intersection was constructed, there was not additional drainage added in the area, he noted, and ultimately that resulted in a number of years where the intersection has beeen inundated with water.
Denhoed noted one serious incident last March and said there is considerable concern about the road freezing at night and people not noticing there is ice on the road.
The Region of Waterloo had the task of dealing with the drainage issue, in partnership with the Ministry of Transportation.
MTE Consultants was hired to work on remediation and developed seven possible solutions – three involved diverting drainage towards the southwest of the intersection, and four diverting water east of the intersection into the Puslinch Lake basin.
Denhoed noted three of the proposed solutions would divert water into small wetland basins – not directly into the lake, and the final solution picked by the region would drain directly into wetland immediately adjacent to the Puslinch Lake.
Those solutions were presented three years ago.
“Because of my involvement with the Puslinch Lake Conservation Association and its lake dredging program for the past two decades, we strongly recommended to the Region of Waterloo to reconsider that option,” Denhoed told council.
One reason behind the request for reconsideration included the work done by the PLCA to clean the lake up.
Additionally, during initial efforts to get the dredging work underway, Denhoed said the group was given a lot of grief by the Grand River Conservation Authority about placing dredged materials near wetlands because of the potential of contamination.
Denhoed said the current proposal is “a bit of a slap in the face when they are going to directly discharge storm water into a provincially significant wetland right beside the lake.”
As such the PLCA is not very pleased with the situation as it stands.
Denhoed said both he and councillor Wayne Stokley made it clear to the Region of Waterloo that a solution other than discharging water into the Puslinch Lake basin should be considered.
One idea considered was a large detention pond between Wellington Road 32 and Townline Road.
MTE designed the pond to accommodate a 100-year storm, yet at the end of the day, Denhoed said it did not end up being the preferred option.
To Denhoed, the reasons behind that decision were not clear, only that eventually maintenance would be required and without that, the intersection could again flood.
As a result, he said the preferred choice of the region is to discharge the stormwater into the wetland next to Puslinch Lake. He agreed that from an engineering and safety perspective, “that option makes all kinds of sense.”
The storm runoff would leave the intersection and never come back.
Another option considered was to dig another detention pond, but with a lower capacity. Then it would only be during longer or prolonged storms that runoff would end up in the lake.
“That is the solution they are putting forward today,” said Denhoed.
He noted this was presented back in 2012, “then everything went quiet.”
“This spring they began cutting down all the trees and that was when we realized the region was moving forward with it.”
He said that during that time, Waterloo Region had started discussions with the GRCA to get approval to discharge runoff directly into the wetland.
“I was surprised that was an acceptable solution to the GRCA because of the grief the PLCA encountered regarding proposed work near the wetlands.”
Denhoed said the runoff “will create a direct and known impact to the wetlands.”
Councillor Wayne Stokley said the one idea was to increase the size of the pond on the Cambridge side of the road.
But, Stokley said he was unclear as to what was actually going to happen.
Denhoed said the original idea was to accommodate a 20-year storm.
It would have allowed more water to be stored before discharging into the wetland.
But Denhoed said the plan turned into something which would accommodate a five-year storm.
“I was a little surprised by that.”
Denhoed was told the project was downscaled because the arborist did not want to see the trees removed.
Stokley said there needs to be a balance between the removal of some trees versus a two-foot wide pipe discharging storm runoff into a wetland.
“Which is going to create more damage,” Stokley asked.
“It infuriates me when they are not looking at the overall picture.”
He said Puslinch Lake residents are concerned the most potential harm will be caused during the winter months from chloride on the roads.
While there is no direct connection from the wetland to the lake, some contaminates may still reach the lake.
Denhoed said water from the intersection will contain elevated concentrations of materials which would head into the wetlands – whereas retention ponds are designed to deal with the materials.
He added that even with materials caught up in the wetlands, there is still the potential of contaminants introduced by runoff – to be flushed into the lake as result of spring runoff or flooding conditions.
“In my mind there are still issues with taking in the storm water and putting it in an area right next to the lake.”
Stokley remain concerned with the idea of the stormwater pipeline.
“If there are only supposed to be minimal flows why is a two-foot diameter pipeline needed.”
For Stokley it raised alarms for the future regarding development in Cambridge. One of the proposals is for a truck stop at the northwest corner of Townline and Pinebush Roads.
“This is something we may regret in the long term.”
Denhoed noted that Cambridge is already experiencing difficulty getting rid of its stormwater in the final phases of industrial development of that intersection.
He noted one of the ideas proposed was putting a concrete barrier under Townline Road – to re-enforce the message that Puslinch was not ready to accept stormwater from Cambridge.
“Part of the solution could still be to let Cambridge deal with its own water, and the township and Wellington County deal with the water on this side,” Denhoed said.
At the same time, Denhoed believed there were already large culverts underneath Townline Road which bring water into the Puslinch Lake basin.
Councillor Susan Fielding said she was “shocked” with the GRCA approval of this proposal – especially after having followed the saga of the Puslinch Lake residents efforts to restore their lake.
“I’ve seen the hoops they’ve had to jump through for the GRCA.”
Fielding said this proposal could have very serious impacts on the environment.
Denhoed stressed one of the issues remains is that the storm runoff will discharge into a provincially significant wetland.
Mayor Dennis Lever said that while he could see water from 100-year storms resulting in runoff to the wetlands, he believed that runoff from lesser storms should be dealt with in other ways.
He said there is space for a water detention pond between County Rd. 32 and Townline Rd.
“The Puslinch Lake Conservation Authority has spent a lot of time and effort investing in efforts to rehabilitate the lake. But the township also has made a significant investment in this which needs to be protected as well.”
As council accepted Denhoed’s report, it passed a resolution noting both the township and PLCA have been unable to dissuade the Region of Waterloo from pursuing options which discharge water into the Puslinch Lake basin.
As a result, Puslinch is asking the Region of Waterloo to reconsider any option which would eliminate the discharge of water into the Puslinch Lake basin.
