Water levels in Griesbach start to subside

After nearly a week, EPCOR is pulling out some of its crews from north Edmonton’s Griesbach neighbourhood as water levels in the sewer system begin to normalize.

Heavy rain last week led to flooding over the weekend. The deluge of rain overwhelmed the sewer system, leading to flooding in about 130 homes.

On Monday, four EPCOR trucks were working around the clock, trying to pump out as much water from the system as possible in an attempt to bring down the water levels.

By Thursday, crews were finally starting to see noticeable progress. EPCOR said the system is beginning to return to normal levels and crews will be tapering off some of their pumping activities.

Despite about five millimetres of rain overnight Wednesday and into Thursday morning, the utility company said it did not experience a rise in the sewer system.

Water levels had dropped to 4.2 metres Thursday. EPCOR said normal levels are anything below five metres. Last Saturday, the levels in the Griesbach tunnel had reached 13.3 metres.

“We understand that customers were nervous about the rain overnight, however, it did not impact our efforts to reduce the water levels in the tunnel. We will continue to pump until the storage at NC2 is emptied,” ECPOR said in an update Thursday. NC2 is the area of the tunnel used for storage.

There are plans to increase capacity in the neighbourhood, but the work won’t be done this year.

“We are, as we speak, working on extending the capacity of that line further to the east. That construction has been going on for some time. It’ll be another year or so before it’s completed,” Clayton Tiedemann, divisional VP of drainage construction and operations with EPCOR, said Monday.

Anyone concerned about flooding in their home is also encouraged by EPCOR to ensure their backwater valve is working properly.