Flooding from Burlington sewers reviewed

We begin with the latest on the aftermath of Monday’s torrential downpour in Burlington. While the damage estimates climb, many residents are wondering if neglect, by the city itself, is partly to blame.

No one is disputing the damage that can be caused when two months of rain blankets an area in just a matter of hours. What some Burlington taxpayers are questioning though, is whether the city of Burlington contributed to the mess by simply neglecting to do its job.

Linda Kennedy and Linda Clarke are neighbours on this quaint Burlington street. On Monday, raw sewage began to spill into their basements causing thousands of dollars of damage.

Linda Clarke: “About 5:00pm, I went downstairs to check the basement because we had five hours of rain by then it was completely dry. My pool was starting to get high so I came out to the backyard to backwash and try and get rid of some of the water and as I was coming down the stairs I heard the gurgling and I went back down stairs it was only 30 minutes later and sewage was spewing like a fountain outside the drain in the laundry room.”

The raw sewage destroyed everything in their basements — furniture, appliances, walls and fixtures. And although both women have insurance policies that fully cover the damage, they worry the flooding could happen again.

Last year the region of Halton discovered a broken sewer pipe in front of their homes. But almost nine months later, neither the city nor region have returned to fix it.

Linda Kennedy: “Well my main concern is, although we are completely covered by insurance, is it going to happen again. And I’m sorry, I am definitely emotional every time I’m talking about it but this sewage back up The Halton region came out and did a test before the snow even came and said that the lateral here is broken between my house and Linda’s house next door and it should be fixed. They haven’t done anything and we have called numerous times. And I was told at one point we weren’t even on the list.”

We contacted Halton region requesting an interview. No one would go on camera but the region did issue this statement.

“With respect to the two addresses identified on Bennett Road, Halton Region has reviewed our records and no outstanding work for these two addresses has been identified on the Region’s infrastructure that would have caused this flooding. Halton Region plans and maintains the sewer infrastructure on a continuous basis.”

So, the blame game continues.