(via Councillor Shad Qadri)
On April 6, a Public Open House was held in Stittsville to review the City’s flood remediation measures planned for the Cypress Gardens/Westwood and neighbouring area.
The City is initiating this work due to issues that came to light from the major storm event that occurred in July 2009 where a number of homes flooded in the south end of Stittsville. I was the Councillor during this time and know this was an extremely difficult time for the community and had a major impact on some residents in this area. The City has taken this issue very seriously and following the major rainfall, the City evaluated flood control measures and a mitigation plan was recommended for the west end area.
At the meeting, Eric Tousignant, P.Eng., Infrastructure Services Department provided an overview of the works that are planned in Stittsville to protect houses in the future if we receive another 100 year rainfall event, such as the one in July 2009. Eric clarified that the term ‘100 year rainfall event’ is a term used in the field but actually means there is a 1% chance any year that we could receive such a major rainfall.
The key message from at the meeting was that if we were to receive another major rainfall the City wants to see the water in our streets and not in resident’s basements. City streets are designed to be able to accommodate rainfall and are engineered to actually direct the rainfall like a river to the appropriate sewer outlets. In a major event the rain could pool up to 1 foot in the streets and potentially onto front yards, however, once the rain stops the water is designed to drain within 20minutes to 1 hour.
The City will install approximately 650 special restrictors called Inlet Control Devices (ICDs) into catch basins across the study area., which will restrict, not prevent, storm water from entering sewers to a level they can handle without putting basements at risk of flooding. The work will also include slightly lowering the stormwater management pond between Coyote Crescent and Elm Crescent as well as some ditch improvement work along Elm Crescent between Goulbourn Street and Meadowland Drive.
At the meeting some residents did question if this work was to accommodate the development known as the Chenier lands located at 6279 Fernbank Road. It is important to note that this flood mitigation is to address the existing conditions that lead to the 2009 flooding of many homes in the area and the work was already being considered prior to any development discussions for that property. Extensive discussions have taken place regarding the stormwater management of the Chenier development and the developer is required to address and accommodate that on their own site without adverse impact to the surrounding areas.
You can view the presentation from the April 6th meeting here – Stittsville Flood Presentation April 06 16
If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact Eric ateric.tousignant@ottawa.ca and myself.