Many Edmontonians are upset after floodwaters caused serious damage to their homes and yards. Two massive rainfalls in less than one week have left several properties damaged, destroyed, or waterlogged. In some cases, flash flooding washed away hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of landscaping.
Now, those homeowners are even angrier after learning their yards are actually designed to flood.
There’s not much left of Nora Holt’s formerly-picturesque backyard.
“There is a fire pit underneath that water. There’s a fence line, there’s shrubs completely and totally underwater,” she says.
Pricey landscaping work has been washed away by an overflowing storm pond, and Holt’s west end yard isn’t even the hardest hit. Her neighbours spend Saturday night looking for sandbags; worried the water would reach her house, and it nearly did.
“Panic,” is how Holt describes her reaction. “You’re waiting for it to come to our house. We’re waiting for our completely fully landscaped yard to be gone and the water to be in our basement. We’re pretty angry.”
A few blocks away, residents share similar frustrations.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do with this plot right now. I really don’t,” reveals Lori Martin.
“We had water halfway through my yard.”
She called the City and discovered this flooding is actually part of the system; part of the city’s drainage plan.
“I was informed yesterday that they’re allowed to flood water into my yard 5 metres from my back door,” Martin shares.
She says she “had no idea that the city actually has a right of way in back of my yard.”
The ponds are created to collect excess water if or when the sewer system is stressed.
“Ponds were getting filled to the design capacity that they’re meant for,” says Derek Melmoth with City of Edmonton Drainage Services.
The ponds are designed to fill, and in extreme cases, they can reach a tipping point, and flow into nearby properties.
“Often the high water level of these lakes is very close to the building location,” says Melmoth.
Look around the city’s 120 ponds, and you can see where the high water marks are, which are also specified in property reports.
“We caution; there’s an easement that advises them that they should be very careful about what they build in those areas because they could get washed out and damaged,” adds Melmoth.
However, neither Holt nor any of her neighbours say they were cautioned.
“We had no warning,” says Holt. “We had no idea this was going to happen. If we had known, maybe we wouldn’t have built here.”
Those who have already built on properties that back onto ponds are worried this could easily happen again, and they’re asking why homes would be allowed to be built in an area designed to flood.
“They should be building further back. So, the property should’ve been bigger and we should’ve been further back,” states Holt.
Melmoth sees the situation slightly differently. “If these lakes weren’t there, there would be water in people’s basements.”
However, many homeowners say knowing more about where their homes were built would have made a difference, and perhaps even saved them some expense.
“Probably would have thought twice building right behind a storm pond,” adds Martin.
“Maybe even changed my choice of landscaping and probably just did grass and saved myself a lot of money.”
With files from Fletcher Kent
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