Olds town councillors received a presentation from a group that recently conducted a review of water infiltration and inflow into the sewer lines.
The review was conducted by Kurtis Layden, Jacquelynn LaFlamme and Karol Jorgensen between August 2010 and June. The review looked at the current situation in Olds to reduce the amount of basement flooding and effluent going into the sewer line.
The review was done by visually inspecting downspouts, weeping tile and landscape grading to see what the current situation is in Olds and what measures could be done to try to reduce flooding. The review found that in many instances, landscape grading is poor and needs to be addressed.
Mitigation measures such as installing downspout diverters that direct water away from full rain barrels, a splash block that diverts water down downspouts and away from homes and promoting the use of sump pumps were recommended to the town. The costs to implement the measures in the 350 residential properties in Olds that were taken as a sample ranged from a low of $9,800 for splash blocks to a high of $656,000 to install backwater valves at all the properties.
“It would be up for debate to the departments and council to determine if we move forward with these, what those subsidies and rebates would be in a dollar figure (to homeowners),” said Layden, who worked for the town on an interim basis as a summer student. “It goes hand in hand with the whole conservation piece that the town has been doing in the past few years.”
Based on the information contained in the report, the group concluded that the town should also educate the public about inflow and infiltration and some of the mitigation strategies available to homeowners. One of the findings in the report was that nearly 50 per cent of residences don't have a sump pump attached to their homes.
“This is great benchmark work,” Larry Wright, the town's director of operations, told councillors.
In addition to council, the report was also shared with the Town of Innisfail and the South Red Deer Regional Wastewater Commission.
