The Town of Minto plans try a carrot before resorting to a stick, but officials feel something has to be done about illegal sewer connections to reduce the risk of basement flooding.
At the May 20 council meeting, public works director Brian Hansen and water/sewer foreman Wayne Metzger reported on infiltration problems discovered during a weekend of heavy rainfall on April 11-13.
During the weekend, alarms went off at the Young Street and William Street lift stations in Harriston. At the William Street station raw sewage gets pumped to the lagoon and if the pumps can’t keep up to the flows it causes backups into basements and manholes to overflow, the report explains, adding the cause of the alarms was “surcharges” into the town’s sanitary system.
“This event occurred in the early morning hours so we know that this is a low peak period for anyone discharging sewer waste from their homes with the exception of having illegal connections and heavy (inflow and infiltration) issues,” states the report.
To put the event into perspective, the report explains, “the average flow at these lift stations are 4500 m3/day. On this particular event the total flow with bypass was 10,490 m3/day. Most of this flow occurred during the heavy rain fall. Keeping in mind that if this event would have occurred during the day when Farm Fresh (a local poultry processing plant) was active and our regular daily flow were added it would be even much higher for the total flow. The estimated max flows per hour are 360 m3/hr or 8640 m3/day and this was exceeded by far.”
The heavy flows caused public works staff to initiate a bypass and, essentially release untreated or lightly-treated sewage into the Maitland River, a measure Metzger said hasn’t been necessary since a major flood in 2008. He noted the bypass was reported to the environment ministry and treated as a spill.
The alternative, said Metzger, would have been allowing sewage to back up basements in town.
The report suggests property owners can help improve the situation by removing downspouts and sump pump discharges from the sanitary sewer system and the town should take steps to educate residents on why its necessary.
While bylaws allow for fines of up to $5,000 for illegal connections, Metzger suggested part of the problem is lack of education about the consequences.
“The flow is not the only impact during an event such as this. When you consider the cost of treating the unnecessary ground water entering the system and the expense of the constant running of these expensive pumps (which) will eventually take its toll and the pumps would have to be replaced. Running pumps also increase hydro consumption,” the report states.
The report explains in 2012, the total cost for wastewater treatment in Minto was $1,091.82 per mega litre, meaning a 2,000 square foot roof with one inch of rainfall would cost $5.17 to treat. The average annual rainfall in Minto is 36.1 inches, which would work out to $186.64 per year for each house that has downspouts connected to the wastewater system. Hansen suggested 800 as a conservative estimate of the number of potential illegal connections town-wide, which would mean about $150,000 annually.
“That is a lot of tax dollars being spent on unnecessary treatment,” he noted.
Metzger said public works will be taking immediate action by lining maintenance holes, replacing maintenance hole chimneys and lining damaged sewers mains in Harriston. They also plan to deliver information packages in Harriston, Palmerston and Clifford to educate the public on how to reduce basement flooding issues. This will involve having town staff doing pre-inspections of the connections and doing follow-ups. To simplify the process, staff can perform these inspections in conjunction with the installation of water meters, Hansen and Metzger suggest in their report.
Council members held divergent views on whether people would respond to an education campaign.
“I think most of our ratepayers would change their system if they knew what the cost was,” said deputy mayor Terry Fisk.
Councillor Ron Elliott said he recalls dealing with the problem as a Palmerston council member as far back as 1988. He suggested people will disconnect from the sewer system when asked, “then reconnect as soon as you shut the door again.
“I don’t think a lot of people care. So maybe we need more of an incentive program whether it be a negative or a positive.
“I think the $5,000 fine would be good. Money talks,” said councillor Rick Hembly.
“Or even the threat of it,” said Elliott.
“I think you have to educate. I think that’s important because I don’t think people do understand it,” said Mayor George Bridge, who questioned, “Whether you jump at a $5,000 fine right away?
“If there’s an ability to do incentives first, rather than fines … maybe that’s the way to go.” The mayor also complimented public works staff who “stayed up all night,” do deal with the problems during the storm in April.
CAO Bill White said staff would conduct the eduction campaign by employing “a friendly approach at first.”
Council accepted the report and authorized public works staff to conduct a door to door education campaign.
