Clean up continues for residents in the Rosedale sub division in Kindersley following two inches of rainfall June 27th. Around 50 homes were damaged due to a major sewage back up, highly impacting Rutley Crescent and Drive.
Nancy Schwanbeck said a water sensor in her basement alerted her around 9:15 p.m. That was when they realized despite their backwater valve sewer was backing up into their basement. Nancy and her husband Gus, an elderly couple, did their best to stem the flow using rags and standing on it to stem the flow. Gus says "By 10:30 it was shooting a foot out of the drain"
After contacting the town emergency line asking for help that never arrived the couple called their own vac truck in to help. The vac truck pumped 7000 liters of fluid for nearly 4 hours to relieve pressure of back flow into their home.
The Town of Kindersley said " There was no failure of equipment" during the event. They did say they had an overload of storm water infiltrating their sewage system. The town believes that the overload happened due to residents having downspouts and sump pumps connected into the sewage lines. They said they are looking " at ways to educate and ensure that residents are adhering to our bylaws, with the goal of having residents disconnect downspouts, weeping tile systems, and sump pumps from our municipal sanitary sewer system."
Resident disagree with the towns assessment of how the overload happened. The residents that west central online spoke to said there was no issues until after the rain had quit and their sump pumps are not connected to the sewer line and did not kick in until after the sewer started backing up and reached the sump holes. They said issues started arising after the town replaced sewer lines and upgraded the pump station three years ago. They are planning on approaching council and have been slotted in July 22nd at 6:30 p.m. to speak with town council regarding the issue.
As residents deal with insurance to handle clean up, some are being told they need to install new valves into lines at the cost of $2,000-$5,000 before they will be eligible for sewer line coverage again. The price tag is leaving some families worrying that they will have to forego sewer back up coverage, while holding their breath that we don't receive another heavy rain in the mean time. It could be awhile before repairs are completed as well as it can take eight months to a year before contractors in the area can schedule them in.
With the expenses and cleanup residents were hoping for some emergency funding to help out. The Town of Kindersley told us "Due to the reason of why the issue happened we would not be eligible for funding under the guidelines of the province"
The Town of Kindersley stated there was some drainage issue's along 11th Ave W due to the ongoing road work. The intersection of highway 7 and 12th Ave also failed to keep up. Some business in this area experienced flooding. Kim Vogel says "We have identified some solutions for this circumstance" and are working with the Ministry of Highways to rectify some issues. Ministry of highways installed a new culvert in the problem area.
Tue, Aug 27, 7:30 PM
