Beny Masella said that although the Town of Montreal West wasn’t authorized to use a pipe which belonged to the City of Montreal in the days following the heavy rain on July 13, the flooding was severe across the whole island. Despite this, they took measures to reduce the impact, he told the council at a late-August meeting.
Masella describes the impact of flooding on the town.
It caused many basements in the town to be flooded and many non-sewer problems, he said. For example, the staircase connecting Courtney Drive and Ronald Drive had been almost completely destroyed.
Masella reported that, the following day on July 14, there was “a major flooding along Brock South between Broughton & Avon.”
The fire department, SPVM and Public Works department assessed the flood and it was clear the water pipe wasn’t one of our 4″ water mains, but a City of Montreal 14.5″ main which runs down Broughton. The valves were closed immediately after we called the number on our website and requested a Montreal plumber to be dispatched. He refused to open the valve after he arrived because he only had authorization to work with pipes that were 10″ in diameter or smaller.
Montreal Mayor says that the company has been delegated to work with this particular size of pipe.
At that time, Public Works violated protocol to shut off the Montreal pipe valves. Water began to flow. Public Works personnel from the Town were on site Friday morning, to clean up as much street damage as they could.
Masella explained that Montreal West had received an anonymous group letter sent by residents of Brock South, to which the town replied.
Montreal clearly indicated in that first communication that they owned the pipe, and were responsible for fixing. The contractor was on-site Tuesday. We would continue garbage and recycling as usual – even though our crews had to do the picking up themselves. The Town confirmed we will be doing special pick ups to get rid of large debris. The street sweeper was fixed and sent immediately to Brock. It made multiple runs to normalize the silt level on the roads.
Masella explained residents were angry, “because they believed we refused to shut our pipe down, that we took too much time to act and that this could have been avoided.”
It is true that we are not allowed to access Montreal’s infrastructure. A pipe this size can have repercussions that are not local. Water pressure variations could have caused numerous breaks in Montreal West, Montreal or even the entire city. They could also have affected the water’s quality. There are certain procedures to follow before shutting down a pipeline like this. The pipe was shut down after a wait of a couple hours for Montreal to dispatch the right people to the site. It was an enormous risk.
According to Mayor, residents were “angry with me personally” because I had not rushed over.
It seemed more important to me that I spend my time helping my teams plan communications and respond than dealing with the flooding in my own basement. Forgoing the easier political decision to ensure the teams have the necessary tools needed to help our residents, I decided to do the opposite. “On Tuesday 18th July, Councillors Small-Pennefather and Feeney went to Brock South and relayed the residents’ concerns and requests to myself and to the Montreal West team.
Following the flooding “we’ve been in constant contact with City of Montreal administrative staff and the political team to ensure the response we get and the interventions to be made are implemented quickly and effectively to minimise any future problems. Our residents had 15 calendar days after damage occurred to submit their claim. Montreal has also been informed of our plans to do so.
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