Some downtown business owners are questioning the municipal response to a recent sewer backup that affected numerous commercial and residential buildings.
Wellington Street resident Mike MacDonald was the first to advise Mapleton Township of the problem around 7am on April 11.
MacDonald said he noticed “a funny smell” in the house. After several attempts to call the township office he connected through an emergency number and was advised the matter would be dealt with.
“We had about six, seven inches of water in the basement. It was coming in pretty good,” MacDonald said in a May 2 interview with the Advertiser.
“It was gushing up through my floor drain in my basement like a geyser … It was just shooting up like … 10, 11 inches off the ground.”
MacDonald said township workers were on the scene quickly and as soon as they started pumping, the flooding in his basement stopped.
After the water receded, MacDonald said he sprayed his basement with a solution of bleach and water, ran a dehumidifier for a few days and said things seem to be fine.
MacDonald says he has no problem with the township’s response to the incident, but wishes preventative measures had been in place.
“I would have liked it dealt with before I had to deal with it. I’m sure they could put those things in place without it costing a fortune,” he stated.
“It just sucked that I had to be the alert to let them know.”
Jackie Coverdale said she wasn’t aware of any problems until she came into work at the Living Well Centre the following Tuesday, April 15.
During a subsequent trip to a local hardware store she learned about the flooding, which she was told was due to a broken pump at the township’s sewage treatment facility.
Coverdale said she was later told the township had not called her but instead a former employee who hasn’t worked for her since December.
Coverdale said the waterline in her basement was up about two feet on the wall. When she called her insurance company, she learned she had no coverage. Coverdale said she called the township again and was advised the backup material was raw sewage.
“I said I don’t have insurance coverage for it and it’s unfair that I should have to cover this expense,” she said.
On April 22, she was contacted by an adjuster for the township’s insurer, who took photos of her basement. After two days, Coverdale emailed the adjuster, who told her not to expect a quick reply and reminded her “it’s your responsibility to mitigate expenses.”
Coverdale said she was told she could expect a preliminary answer on what would be covered within two or three weeks. In the meantime, she has replaced her furnace and water heater at her own expense.
However, she noted, “The place has a musty smell and quite frankly with my furnace down there it’s unhealthy.
“I don’t have the money to fork over thousands of dollars for a restoration company and then hope that I may get that back. My stance is, as a township you are responsible. It’s one thing if it was groundwater. You can’t control that … But sewage? That’s the responsibility of the township.”
Gary Hawkins, whose business, Secure Insurance, is located in a rented downtown building, said, “There’s a lot of injustice in life and I think this is one,” he told the Advertiser.
“Everybody that’s in the downtown core – a major consideration when they have any damage is, ‘I can’t afford this.’” Hawkins said he is concerned not all business owners were advised of the backup.
“The problem is that people were not made aware clearly that there are health issues once the water dissipates from the basement … seriously unhealthy things could be in there,” he said. “People aren’t aware of that – there’s a proper way to clean up sanitary sewage spills. Of the township he said, “I don’t know what their protocol was, but it should have been a lot more.”
CAO Patty Sinnamon did not return a phone call or respond to interview requests but told the Advertiser in a May 5 email she was meeting with the township’s insurers that morning “to determine what the township’s next steps are.”
She also stated “the businesses in the downtown core were telephoned. There were two businesses who we were unable to reach by phone, and one of our public works staff visited those businesses personally.”
