(Update: The District released a statement regarding the system failure on November 21. Read it here.)
The District of Muskoka says it is investigating a sewage backup which affected homes and businesses in the area of Szawlowski Drive and Highway 60 on Saturday, October 28.
At approximately 11 a.m., area resident Bob Masterson was working in his garage when a car drove up and the person inside pointed at a pool of water on the road.
This photo of sewage coming out of a manhole on Szawlowski Drive was submitted by an area resident. The incident also resulted in the flooding of area homes and businesses.
“I went out and realized it was sewage,” said Masterson, who immediately called an emergency public works number to let them know that sewage was coming up a manhole on Szawlowski Drive. He said shortly thereafter a man arrived and started working in the area. The man later knocked on his door and thanked Masterson for calling it in and told him the spill had been contained. Meanwhile, Masterson’s basement was flooded with sewage along with other homes on the road and area businesses, some of which are currently closed while clean up takes place.
When asked how he knew it was sewage, Masterson said he could smell it. “Shite is shite,” he said, adding that sewage was pumping up a drain in the basement crawl space of his home. He suspects the issue had something to do with the pumping station on Highway 60, roughly across from Tim Hortons. He said sewage was coming up with force. “I can only assume there was a valve reversed or something happened because it was being pumped, it wasn’t like a blockage.”
He said he asked the person who arrived to address the issue what would happen to his basement and was told that had nothing to do with the District.
Masterson questioned whether the District has some sort of alarm in place to alert staff when a sewage backup problem occurs. “You would think that there would’ve been something.” In all fairness, he said the municipality responded quickly, but he’s concerned with the measures in place to ensure it does not occur again. He also pointed at a storm water sewer along the road and said it appears the person from the municipality had cleared the leaves off of it so the spill on the road could drain into it. “That goes straight into Fairy Lake,” noted a concerned Masterson.
Meanwhile, his wife Margaret also sent the District a letter concerned about health issues related to the sewage spill as well as the $2,000 deductible they’ll have to pay to their insurance company to address the issue. She also noted that the insurance company had hired a company to clean up the mess. She said the cleanup took four days and included having large equipment running non-stop at a considerable cost in hydro.
“We feel that the Municipality should take some responsibility for what happened – a pump station failure – and there appeared to be no back up plan for this situation,” she wrote.
The Mastersons received a response from Mark Pringle of the District of Muskoka who indicated that an investigation into the cause of the sewage backup by the District as well as the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change and insurance adjuster was ongoing.
In terms of health impacts, Pringle wrote, “domestic sewage is not hazardous waste but certainly there is a risk of disease and bacteriological infection if good hygiene practices are not followed.” He recommended that rubber boots and rubber gloves be worn in such environments and that “good hand washing practices are followed along with being mindful of hand to mouth activities such as smoking.”
“District workers in sewage environments have a good track record of not being ill from exposure to sewage,” Pringle wrote, going on to say that the risk was mostly taken by the employees of the company hired to clean up the sewage. He stated that a “surface that has been cleaned of sewage and is dry and ventilated should not present any risk.” He also stated that if an area was not cleaned properly and left wet or damp, there is a risk of mould growth but suspects that the company hired by the Mastersons’ insurance did its due diligence.
Les Szawlowski, whose family has owned property in the area for some time and after whom the street was named, said his family estate home was flooded by sewage. He said it was coming up through the drains of the house. “We have to deal with our own insurance because the District of Muskoka is immune to any action against them,” he said, adding that if the District were responsible for covering every malfunction, they’d probably go bankrupt.
“I think a protocol should be put in place. The Town of Huntsville has grown so much in the last 15 years that we’re like a mini sort of city now and I think we have to accept that growth is not going to stop here. So maybe we have to put a process in place so if something like this ever happens again then they know how to react,” said Szawlowski, referring to perhaps notifying those impacted by going door to door and having a plan in place to know how to immediately address such incidents.
“The only reason we found out is we could smell the sewage coming into the basement of the house,” explained Szawlowski. He did say that he watched District employees working hard in the aftermath to clean up the ditches and roads and in his mind they were doing their due diligence. He said he knows a few District employees and they do work hard. “Since I’m in the construction industry, I see what they have to put up with sometimes, like when stuff breaks at 3 a.m. in -40, they’re there trying to fix it.”
As of noon on Wednesday, November 15, Town CAO Denise Corry said in a written statement to Doppler, “it appears we did not receive any information on this from the District,” adding that she has asked staff to follow up with the District regarding their protocol for advising local municipalities when such incidents occur.
District Communications Officer Molly Ross said the system is back up and running and that the cause of the problem continues to be investigated.
As of publication time, Doppler was unable to contact affected businesses for comment.
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Why are we just reporting on this environmental issue now. Hopefully I missed a previous news release.
One would question as to why there were no back flow devices installed in the drainage system of the homes that were affected by the sewage back up when they were built. As this area is in a low lying location, it should have been mandatory or for no other reason than just plain common sense. A simple device that could have saved a lot of damage and costs to the home owners.
It’s not good enough to say “Oh the poor District would be bankrupt if they had to pay for every such incident.” The District owns the cause of the problem so either they or their insurance company has to reimburse the people who were inconvenienced by property damage. Lack of maintenance or ageing equipment is likely the cause of the problem therefore the District is responsible.