Photo Credit: Shaun Vardon (CTV News Ottawa)
From the Toronto Star, article written by December 2, 2021:
An increase in the amount of rain fall can cause flooding that will in turn cause a lot of damage.
The current systems were designed using historic climate data and built to a certain depth to control the amount of water typically falling on an area over the course of the year.
According to the Credit Valley Conservation Authority, water levels cannot be contained in the current sewer system. The over flow means flooding and the transfer of toxic materials to water ways.
The solution is to capture as much of the storm water and soak it into the ground before it goes into the sewer systems and downstream river areas.
This is referred to as a ‘low impact development’ system and uses fairly simple techniques to allow water to seep back into the ground. An example is a permeable pavement parking lot that allows water to seep between paving stones rather than pooling that would happen on regular asphalt parking lot.
The Town of New Tecumseth is working to keep up with the change in storm water management with a series of local projects.