Decommissioned pipe is not the source of basement water: Town

An pipe uncovered in recent demolitions on Yonge Street near Irwin Avenue is not the cause of flooding in the basements of some homes on Irwin and nearby Machell Avenue, according to municipal staff.

Concerns were first voiced at Aurora's Public Planning meeting earlier this month, sparking action from Council and Municipal Staff.

At the time, an unsealed water pipe was floated as the possible culprit for this flooding, including one resident who reported pressurized water coming up through his foundations, but preliminary work has concluded this is not the case.

“We have confirmed that the pipe was not one of the possible sources of water [and it] had been sealed as part of the demolitions,” Doug Nadorozny, CAO for the Town of Aurora, told local lawmakers last week. “The resident also has another expert assessing the situation that he asked for in terms of his foundation, but we do have to do some coordinated work with York Region and figure out what the best solution is for the site and then also assess to what degree some of the issues might be with the foundation, even though there is a groundwater situation we're looking into.

“There are a number of people from our staff who are looking into this… and we're committed to getting back to the resident with some concrete actions or solutions, or at least analysis in terms of what we're finding, but it does involve the Region and we have been advised it will take some time.”

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter