Important work done on ditches at CSL Snow Dump

Work  has  been taking place at our snow dump on Marc Chagall Avenue as a reaction to a problem we discovered last year with an amount of water runoff which looked as it had become a standing pool at the north side.   I thank Dr. Marvin Steinberg for continuing to bring this to our attention. Concerned that this may be a potential for mosquitoes to propagate in the stagnant water or other potential problems, we combined our efforts with Engineering to investigate and follow through with a plan of action.

The ditches around the perimeter of the dump that capture the melting snow were inspected, but the water in the ditch surrounding the snow dump was determined to be not stagnant. We confirmed that ditches were functioning and the water from the melting snow made its way to the north west corner of the snow dump where it drained into the city sewer; the water from the melting snow is continuously running to a low point at the north west corner of the dump. The water then percolates through the bed of gravel into the city's sewer system.

A contractor was called in early spring to break up the remaining snow with a large shovel and this accelerated the melting process. We took advantage at the same time to clean all leaves at the bottom of the ditches, as well. Once all the snow had melted we picked up all remaining debris in the snow dump from our snow removal operations.  The company Stantec was then called in to do a study of why there was any water accumulation and finally determined that the required repairs included the need to replace a broken sewer pipe. The company Simo was contacted on a "appel de service" and was supposed to do the work in November. They are here now completing the work.

Thanks to Director of Public Works Beatrice Newman and Director of  Urban Development and Engineering Charles Senekal and their teams.