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Water, Water Everywhere ...The
Locke Street floods
Grant Ranalli,
Newsletter, Kirkendall Neighbourhood Association
April 2003: Locke Street in West Hamilton has
been the site of two major (30") water main breaks. A month
after the second broke (Feb.23) area residents met on March 24th
under the banner: Treading Water on Locke Street (at St. Joseph’s
church) to discuss the matter. Chaired by Ken Sherman,
four presentations were made. The first was by Don McLean
of Environment
Hamilton who gave an brief history of City spending on projects
and projected some debts for the future.
Second to speak was the Director of Water
and Wastewater for the City, Lou DiGironimo.
A powerpoint presentation illustrated, very clearly, the current
status of the water delivery infrastructure. It is not a pretty
sight. Several criticisms were levelled at the City for allowing
the deterioration to occur, and yet, in context of the general neglect
of civic infrastructure across the country, Hamilton’s plight
seems on par with other cities - not that the status quo should
be acceptable. Of late, and certainly post-Walkerton, these issues
have become much more prominent. In the last few years, despite
opposition by some colleagues, Councillor Marvin Caplan has been
pushing for higher water rates both as a way to recover costs and
in an environmental sense, to make people think twice about wasting
water. A risky but sensible stand that would have been political
suicide 10 years ago. Think back a decade. Who talked about pouring
money into things like water and sewer pipes? Coupled with Federal
and Provincial downloading, cities were less inclined to maintain
these ‘hidden’ assets when the mantra of the times was
TAX CUTS! and inevitable cuts to service. Provincial Tories wanted
‘less government’ but that turned into less regulation
and monitoring which partly explains the e-coli spread in Walkerton.
As any homeowner will tell you, repairs can be deferred only so
long, and will cost much more if delayed in the long term. DiGironimo’s
graphs showed that , in terms of water ‘affordability’
Hamilton sits in the middle of the pack between a high in Norfolk
county to a low in Peel. In any case, the City has and will continue
with SAM (Sustainable Asset Management) which involves ‘Strategic
Reinvestment’. Replacement of the 30" main may cost about
2.5 million. Timetable uncertain.
The third speaker was Dermot Nolan, a lawyer whose
sage and timely advice challenged those directly affected by the
flooding to get specific legal advice, check their insurance policies
carefully, and to start documenting their losses, in writing. He
also urged those considering legal action (individual or class action)
to consider that the onus is on homeowners to find the City negligent
- a difficult thing to prove.
Finally, local residents Cathy Erb and Linda
Smith, founders of the Locke
Street Neighbour's Group spoke very sensibly about coming together
to pool ideas and resources to help flood victims get through the
crisis. This group sent out a survey to catalogue flood damages
and their nature. The idea of a class action was downplayed as too
risky. Councillor Caplan proposed two resolutions that passed City
Council. One pertains to the cleanup of homeowner yards (silt, gravel,
drains, sinkholes lawns etc). The second deals with the creation
of a committee with a two-fold purpose - one, to look at the needs
that arise from these particular water main breaks and, two, to
look at building a plan of action for similar situations in the
future. For residents who endured this stressful and potentially
costly ordeal, we hope for the best outcome for all concerned.
Previous LockeStreet.com Pages on the Locke/Herkimer Watermain
Break.
For more news please visit the News Index.
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