'Beyond exhausted': Windsor residents await fixes to frequent flooding, sewage overflow
CBC
As widespread flooding swept through Nova Scotia's Valley region on Thursday evening, two words were top of mind for residents of a flood-prone street in Windsor: Not again.
It takes only about 15 minutes of heavy rainfall for brown-coloured water, tainted with sewage, to start spewing out of catch basins, flooding Stannus Street and overflowing onto residential properties.
While trying to mitigate damage from Thursday's overnight flood, Jennifer Moore slipped face-first into the contaminated water.
"I'm going to go get a tetanus shot," Moore said on Friday morning. "I feel nauseous, my eyes are itchy, [I have a] massive headache, and it was terrifying to fall into that."
Residents are running out of patience waiting for a solution to the town's overburdened combined sewer and stormwater system.
"We're just beyond exhausted. It's actually just numbing. I don't even know how to feel anything right now. It's completely overwhelming," said Moore.
Moore and her Stannus Street neighbours, Alicia Hennessey and Amanda Dunfield, say the repeated flooding has taken over their lives to an extent. They attend council meetings, write letters advocating for change and run a Facebook page where they keep tabs on rainfall warnings and combined sewer overflows, which happen when the combination of sewage and stormwater exceeds the capacity of the system.
"We're safe, but the long-lasting effects on our health, we don't know," said Hennessey, who carried her young boys through the flowing water to safety on Thursday night. "I got little kids. I don't want to expose them to this."
In December, West Hants Regional Municipality received a report by CBCL Engineering, a Halifax-based consultancy firm. The municipality had hired the firm about two years earlier to assess the situation and identify several short- and long-term solutions.
West Hants Mayor Abraham Zebian told CBC on Wednesday, the day before this week's flood, that estimates to separate and rework the existing combined sewer system could put the cost over $200 million.
The municipality will require help from all levels of government to foot the bill.
Zebian said council commissioned CBCL to conduct a second phase of its study to provide more concrete steps and recommendations on how the municipality should move forward. He hopes it will be ready sometime this fall.
"The residents are frustrated. As an elected official, you feel helpless sometimes," said Zebian. "It's hard on us as well because we want to give that help, yesterday."
Dunfield, who has spent tens of thousands of dollars repairing flood damage to her house and property, understands a fix won't happen overnight, but she said she wants to see more tangible short-term help from the municipality.