St. Laurent council files report on sewer backup bylaw

By Joel Goldenberg, October 10th, 2012

St. Laurent council approved the filing of a report from its water services department regarding the implementation from June to December 2011 of its bylaw protecting buildings against sewer backup.
The bylaw was passed in 2009 to try and prevent a recurrence of flooding of homes, which took place a few times in recent years as a result of heavy rainfalls.
During last week's St. Laurent council meeting, Mayor Alan DeSousa pointed out that the borough came up with an action plan, which included, among others:
• The installation of distance measuring equipment on its seven retaining tanks.
• The formation of a committee to modify existing bylaws to decrease water flow.
• A bylaw change to reduce parking ratios per property, to enable more green space.
Residents were also told of the importance of installing valves in their home to prevent blockage.
“We put a variety of measures in place, at the individual level, at our level in St. Laurent and also with the centre city services, to do that,” the mayor pointed out. “This report is just a continuity of the efforts we're making to make sure we can offer the best services possible, particularly with regards to the capacity of our system to absorb the water, particularly in periods of high rainfall.”
DeSousa said there were 162 home inspections during the 2011 time period, “particularly in those areas that were hit by the rainfall and might be vulnerable to future flooding.
“And we're going to continue to do this, home by home, door by door, letting people know what their obligations are and what they should be installing,” he added. “The citizen is better served... and they are less vulnerable to flooding. They also have the opportunity of having less insurance claims, and at the end of the day, the city is also saved the hassle of dealing with some of these issues.
The mayor said the report also dealt with places where backwater valves were missing or “deficient.
“Sometimes people didn't even know a backwater valve existed, didn't know where it was, how to operate it, how to maintain it, how to make sure it's in operating condition. Part of the exercise was education, installation, repairs and, where necessary, replacement.
“This is something that will continue - not just through 2011, but through 2012 and in the future. The objective is, as part of our water management plan, to make sure that the maximum amount of people who might be vulnerable to this can take preparatory, preventive measures. We can't always ensure there will be no flooding, but we can at least advise and work with people to make sure we can minimize that impact.”n