Free flood risk assessments available for CBRM homeowners

People living in urban areas of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality can now sign up for free advice on how to protect their homes and yards from damaging floodwaters.

The municipality has partnered with the non-profit environmental group, ACAP Cape Breton, to offer the free assessments on how stormwater moves on properties connected to the CBRM wastewater system.

The program is similar to home energy audits that educate homeowners on ways to reduce their power consumption. 

Shauntel Kelly, an ACAP project supervisor, said flooding is a common problem in CBRM, especially for people living near the Wash Brook.

The brook winds its way through much of Sydney and often overflows during heavy rainfalls, which has flooded homes, businesses and roads.

"We want to mitigate as much as possible to try to keep the strain off our wastewater systems," said Kelly.

CBRM is funding the program in hopes of reducing stormwater runoff from entering municipal wastewater systems. Officials didn't have an estimate of the program's projected cost. 

Three homes have been examined since the program launched in the fall. Recommendations have included planting native trees and brush around homes, and creating marshy depressions known as swales to collect water at ground level.

"It's just micro things that homeowners can do that won't break the bank," said Kelly.

" ... I think a lot of people in Sydney have experienced some type of flooding — your foundation can have cracks in it, you can have an issue of backwater from your septic."

Flooding problems in Sydney

Flooding in Sydney was a major problem in 2016, when a historic Thanksgiving Day storm brought torrential downpours and flash flooding. The province later reached a deal to buy 17 homes that were deemed uninhabitable. 

Brandon Talbot, the operations supervisor with CBRM wastewater operations, said water runoff from private homes contributes to systems overflowing, which also leads to flooding.

Talbot said a part of the problem is older homes are equipped with wastewater systems that flow directly into their storm drains. 

"It's a large municipality with a lot of old homes. They've got a lot of old ways of doing things [in] regards to connecting their eavestrough downspouts, their weeping tiles, et cetera, into [municipal sewer lines]."

Talbot said the program is expected to save the municipality from spending more money on equipment that gets burned out from heavy use.

It also reduces the cost of chemicals that are used to treat wastewater. 

People living in urban areas of the CBRM can contact ACAP to sign up for a free assessment on flood risks found on their properties.