{"id":40168,"date":"2017-11-16T06:05:08","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T11:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=40168"},"modified":"2017-11-22T10:46:51","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T15:46:51","slug":"huntsville-homes-businesses-flooded-sewage-district-investigating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/huntsville-homes-businesses-flooded-sewage-district-investigating\/","title":{"rendered":"Huntsville homes and businesses flooded by sewage; District is investigating"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Update: The District released a statement regarding the system failure on November 21. Read it here<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"

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.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI went out and realized it was sewage,\u201d 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

When asked how he knew it was sewage, Masterson said he could smell it. \u201cShite is shite,\u201d 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. \u201cI can only assume there was a valve reversed or something happened because it was being pumped, it wasn\u2019t like a blockage.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Masterson questioned whether the District has some sort of alarm in place to alert staff when a sewage backup problem occurs. \u201cYou would think that there would\u2019ve been something.\u201d In all fairness, he said the municipality responded quickly, but he\u2019s 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. \u201cThat goes straight into Fairy Lake,\u201d noted a concerned Masterson.<\/p>\n

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\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel that the Municipality should take some responsibility for what happened \u2013 a pump station failure \u2013 and there appeared to be no back up plan for this situation,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/div>\n

In terms of health impacts, Pringle wrote, \u201cdomestic sewage is not hazardous waste but certainly there is a risk of disease and bacteriological infection if good hygiene practices are not followed.\u201d He recommended that rubber boots and rubber gloves be worn in such environments and that \u201cgood hand washing practices are followed along with being mindful of hand to mouth activities such as smoking.”<\/p>\n

\u201cDistrict workers in sewage environments have a good track record of not being ill from exposure to sewage,\u201d 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 \u201csurface that has been cleaned of sewage and is dry and ventilated should not present any risk.\u201d 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\u2019 insurance did its due diligence.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cWe have to deal with our own insurance because the District of Muskoka is immune to any action against them,\u201d he said, adding that if the District were responsible for covering every malfunction, they\u2019d probably go bankrupt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a protocol should be put in place. The Town of Huntsville has grown so much in the last 15 years that we\u2019re 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,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only reason we found out is we could smell the sewage coming into the basement of the house,\u201d 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. \u201cSince I\u2019m 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\u2019re there trying to fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of noon on Wednesday, November 15, Town CAO Denise Corry said in a written statement to Doppler, \u201cit appears we did not receive any information on this from the District,\u201d adding that she has asked staff to follow up with the District regarding their protocol for advising local municipalities when such incidents occur.<\/p>\n

District Communications Officer Molly Ross said the system is back up and running and that the cause of the problem continues to be investigated.<\/p>\n

As of publication time, Doppler was unable to contact affected businesses for comment.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on Doppler! Sign up for our free newsletter here<\/u>.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/broadstreet-zone>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":40169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[26,1551,1269,1550,1552],"class_list":["post-40168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-breaking","tag-butchers-daughters","tag-hwy-60","tag-sewage-back-up","tag-szawlowski-drive"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHuntsville homes and businesses flooded by sewage; District is investigating - Huntsville Doppler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/huntsville-homes-businesses-flooded-sewage-district-investigating\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Huntsville homes and businesses flooded by sewage; District is investigating - Huntsville Doppler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(Update: The District released a statement regarding the system failure on November 21. 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