Addressing our stormwater crisis

Margaret Shkimba’s article on Hamilton’s stormwater perfectly captures the critical stage in which Hamilton finds itself. As she states, we literally are “drowning in our own feces.” In my neighbourhood in Westdale, we have had enough sewer surges that residents are full of anxiety in heavy downpours. Many homeowners have now installed backflow valves, sump pumps, and have disconnected their downspouts. These measures help, but are not fail-safe and are installed in an attempt to cope with the city’s downward spiralling wastewater disaster. Lack of permeable surfaces compounds the issue. As an example, the school at the end of our street has major groundwater problems, resulting from construction that occurred during the school expansion. In heavy rains, the school parking lot is a lake of significant depth.

On Sept. 22, a company was caught draining thousands of gallons of water onto our residential street without permission from the city, during a rain warning no less. This type of increased stormwater strain is enough to tip the system into a surge situation. Stormwater fees are an essential investment in tackling our crumbling sewer infrastructure. Dumping this sewage into our basements and our precious wetlands is a horrible state of affairs, which will only escalate, if unaddressed.

Danae Fraser, Hamilton