Sewer Info / Town Actions
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The Town of Edson’s storm sewer system is designed to handle heavy rainfall intensity, however, unprecedented storm surges such as this are difficult for any municipal system to handle. As rainfall intensifies, it gets to a point where the system can no longer accommodate this increase in flow.
Once that happens, roadways become the natural conveyance of runoff to any one of the three creeks that flow through Town.
Within the Town of Edson, a majority of the storm sewer system were designed back in the 1960’s and 1970’s and undersized for today’s needs. The Town has been in the process of improving these storm sewer systems with proposed upgrades to Wase Creek, Improvements to 1st Avenue, as well as other areas of Town.
With the past few days of continual rainfall, the ground has soaked up as much as moisture as it could, and now our system is running at capacity. Our Public Works crews are out assessing our storm sewer system and being proactive to address issues, including:
- Pumps being deployed around Town to drain mains and divert where possible.
- Have sourced extra pumps to deploy as needed.
- Diverting sanitary past the treatment plant to holding ponds to relieve pressure.
- Beaver specialist working on freeing blockages downstream on Bench Creek.
- 13 Properties have reported flooding so far.
- Crews are out clearing culverts and catch basins of debris.
- Mains are all full and flowing to the surface.
- Releasing water at one location may cause another area to flood downstream. Crews are being mindful of this as they work to get water flowing.
- Hillendale Storm Pond overflow valve has been fully opened and levels in the pond are starting to drop. Crews are monitoring the release downstream.