{"id":25817,"date":"2020-01-31T19:39:41","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T00:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25817"},"modified":"2020-02-07T12:29:22","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T17:29:22","slug":"flood-reduction-in-focus-as-council-addresses-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/flood-reduction-in-focus-as-council-addresses-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Flood reduction in focus as Council addresses challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In heavy rainstorms, the sight of cars either grounded or\nlifted by rising waters as they travel Wellington Street West have become more\nand more frequent, but new measures eyed by the Town could soon bring relief\nfor commuters and residents near problem areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council this week is poised to endorse in principle a new\nStream Management Plan and Flood Relief Study that outlines challenges facing\nthe community over the next 40 years when it comes to flooding and climate\nchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If approved by Council this week, the total estimated\ncost for all the projects contained within the plan amounts to $41 million\nspread over a 30-year period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This, according to municipal staff, breaks down to an\nestimated budget in the range of $530,000 to $2.87 million per year over the\nnext three decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Stream Management Master Plan and Flood Relief Study\nwere presented to local lawmakers at the January 14 General Committee meeting. Introduced\nby geomorphologist Robert Amos, the studies examined areas linked to the\nTannery Creek and East Holland River watersheds and outlined a number of\nprojects Aurora should tackle over the next four decades to better manage\nstreams and reduce flood risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original report, as presented, earmarked improvements\nto the Wellington Street West and Machell Park areas on the 10 \u2013 20-year  and 20 \u2013 30-year planning horizons\nrespectively, but given frequent flood concerns expressed by residents, Council\nvoted to move flood-reduction projects related to these two areas up to the 2 \u2013\n10 year window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really hope we can speed things up as much as\npossible,\u201d said Councillor Rachel Gilliland, before making a motion to move the\nWellington Street West project up to the 2 \u2013 10-year horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This project was tentatively approved at the Committee\nlevel, as was a further motion from Councillor Sandra Humfryes to bring\nprojects related to Machell Park up to the same timeframe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMachell Park has some severe flooding, including going\nright up to the neighbours\u2019 backyards,\u201d said Councillor Humfryes. \u201cSoccer is\ncancelled and their basements have been ruined time and time again for years \u2013\nfor 20 or 30 years. I just think we should be able to add that one as well. I\nunderstand Wellington Street has [been happening] forever and cars have\nproblems going through, but this is damaging the homes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new Stream Management Plan and Flood Relief Study was\ncommissioned by Council in 2018 to look at the conditions of existing dam and\nflood control measures located in Aurora\u2019s older neighbourhoods, examine\nchallenges that new developments have presented to old infrastructure, pinpoint\nareas where remedial work is necessary and develop a budget to address the\nissues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the areas of study were stream erosion risks and\nareas for restoration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Stream Management Master Plan identified problem\nareas, but also many opportunities to reduce flooding risks and improve the\noverall health of the Town\u2019s streams and creeks,\u201d said Anca Mihail, Manager of\nEngineering for the Town of Aurora in her report to Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such areas of concern, she said, were risks due to\nerosion and deteriorating infrastructure, debris jams in watercourses\nincreasing flooding hazards, increased flooding risks due to undersized\nculverts that constrain high flows, and landscaping on private properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flooding issues include 259 buildings \u2013 230 of which are residential\nhomes \u2013 identified as susceptible, 28 undersized road crossing structures, and\nmore than 30 road crossings deemed too narrow to meet Ministry of Natural\nResources guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn total, the Town of Aurora maintains over 80 km of\nrivers, creeks, tributaries and drainage features, all of which provide a very\nvaluable natural heritage element to the Town, supporting aquatic and\nterrestrial habitats, providing significant vegetation and recreational\nopportunities that are integrated into the corridors, but also, these 80 km of\nstream segments also provide direct drainage for all of the local\nneighbourhoods,\u201d said Mr. Amos in his presentation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTen specific flood projects were identified based upon\nthe flood hazard assessment,\u201d he adds, noting that within the study project,\nmaps based on erosion and flooding areas had an \u201cuncanny\u201d consistency. \u201cWhat\nthis enabled us to do is come up with an integrated implementation plan, at\nwhich point we looked at the priority of the erosion and flooding projects and,\nfrom a logistics standpoint, we made recommendations to address erosion and\nflooding projects coupled together. What this will do is ensure that when a\nflood project is undertaken \u2013 for example, the replacement of an undersized\nroad crossing \u2013 that the upstream and downstream channel will be addressed\nshould there be erosion hazards as well. This will inevitably save the Town\nmoney from a contractual standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the concerns outlined by Councillors Gilliland\nand Humfryes, Mr. Amos said amending the project timetables to bring forward\nprojects sooner is always a welcome move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot can go on over the next 20 to 30 years, as well as\na lot can change within the water courses,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are certainly quite\ndynamic. Any opportunity the Town may have in terms of advancing some of the\nlonger-term horizons into a shorter term would certainly help to reduce the\nexisting risks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Mihail, however, cautioned that improvements to the\nMachell Park area are \u201cvery complex\u201d and quite expensive, estimated within the\nplan at $7.8 million due to the need for an underground flood storage facility\nin addition to an upgraded soccer field on site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Council gave the tentative green light to the\nplan, as well as the two amendments made at the table, a note of caution was\ninterjected by Councillor John Gallo, who was wary of these decisions being\nmade on an \u201cad-hoc\u201d basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn order for me to make that decision, I need to know whether staff took into account only the financial aspects or the severity to be addressed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In heavy rainstorms, the sight of cars either grounded or lifted by rising waters as they travel Wellington Street West have become more and more frequent, but new measures eyed by the Town could soon bring relief for commuters and residents near problem areas. Council this week is poised to endorse in principle a new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Ip","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 12:35:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}