Homeowners on flood-prone Windsor street call for fixes to overburdened storm sewers
Residents living on Stannus Street say flooding is getting worse
Feelings of overwhelming fear and anxiety hit Alicia Hennessey, Amanda Dunfield and Jennifer Moore every time a rainfall warning is issued for their area.
The women are neighbours and live with their families on Stannus Street in downtown Windsor, N.S. — their homes three in a row. For years they've each dealt with repeated flooding caused by problems with the town's combined sewage and storm water system.
During heavy rains, brown-coloured water — sometimes tainted with raw sewage — flows like a river in the street, lawns and basements flood, and backed-up water spews out of catch basins in front of their homes because the system can't cope with the flow.
"We're not handling it very well at all," said Dunfield, who's lived in Windsor with her eight-year-old daughter for two years.
"My child is not handling it well. She'll refuse to go to school on days when it might rain because she feels the need to stay home and keep mom safe, and keep her pet safe, and check her house, and help where she can."
Dunfield said she was not aware of the extent of the flooding issue when she bought the home, and would consider leaving, but knows it's not marketable anymore.
"Not many people in this world can afford to walk away," she said. "If I just say, 'well, I'm out of here,' we will be unhoused … if we don't lose everything and end up unhoused in the process."
The three women each have pumps, hoses, sandbags, drain systems and generators to try to keep the water away from their properties, but it's not enough. They say a complete overhaul of the combined system needs to happen immediately.
Todd Richard, director of Public Works with the Municipality of West Hants, said in an interview that the systems must be separated — creating one pipe for sanitary sewer, and another for storm water. However, the municipality is waiting on results of a study that's been in the works since 2021.
They commissioned CBCL Engineering, a consultancy firm in Halifax, to review the town's system and provide recommendations on how to improve it.
At a public meeting on Monday, where Hennessey, Dunfield and Moore were present, residents were told that the report should be ready in about six weeks.
Richard also pointed to a "shared responsibility" between the municipality and its residents, highlighting that Winsdor is an old town, and many of these homes were built in low lying areas, some either at, or slightly below sea level.
"We do take our responsibility very serious for the street water, but there's also that impact on private areas that, you know, are vulnerable to flooding for those reasons," he said.
He said the municipality works to ensure residents know what they can do to prevent localized flooding. Some examples include, making sure drains are working, sump pumps are hooked up properly and disconnecting rain gutters.
Moore, who's lived in Windsor since 1998 and on Stannus Street since 2010, says it shouldn't be her responsibility to deal with the consequences of a failed system. She says the flooding has been going on for years, but has only been getting worse since 2014.
"When you see people, you know, officials [cleaning up] in hazmat suits, and then I see my teenager doing it in shorts — it's not my job and it's not my children's job. It's not my neighbour's job to pump this product off of my property. It's not my product," said Moore.
For Hennessey, who estimates having spent at least $10,000 out of pocket to make repairs from this summer's flooding and has lost three cars, a lawn mower, generator, washer and dryer, hot water heater and furnace, the financial pressure and loss of material items are the least of her concerns.
"After any rainfall, all you can smell is sewage," she said. "The smell after is horrendous. Like it's really, really, really pungent."
She worries about what types of hazardous waste her three young boys, all under the age of nine, are being exposed to.
West Hants Mayor Abraham Zebian said he feels for the residents of Windsor and wishes there was something he could do to speed up the process, but the commissioned study has taken much longer than anticipated.
"Council is very motivated to implement [the recommendations] as quick as we can," he said.
He said he's heard many estimated figures, but expects whatever changes are needed will cost tens of millions of dollars. Zebian said these funds will need to come from all three levels of government.
The mayor also spoke of a large, $100,000 pump that council purchased as a Band-Aid solution to the flooding, but he agrees with residents that it hasn't been doing the trick.
Ultimately, the municipality can't do much until the report is complete, but in the meantime Zebian said they are looking into how they can help mitigate some of the sewage odours.
Residents like Hennessey haven't given up hope.
"My husband and I want to grow old in this house," she said. "The plan right now is, you know, maybe we're looking through rose coloured glasses, but that the town's going to fix this, this sewage problem and then, you know, we can stay here."
For others like Moore who would "move tomorrow," Zebian said he would support residents should they ask council to put in a request to the province for a provincial buyout program for flood-prone homes — something that HRM has done recently for residents living in the Bedford flood plain.
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