Little grass left to absorb all this rain: MAW

After reading all the stories and headlines regarding the repeated sewer backups and flooding happening in different parts of the city, I’m left wondering how on Earth this could be classed as a “natural disaster” as opposed to an engineering problem with the sewer system the flooded homes are hooked up to. If you enter the co-ordinates into Google Earth, an image of the area from 2005 shows that hundreds of homes have been built in this area and hooked up to the existing sewer trunk line buried under the road.

I then went to the city’s mapping system, available online, that shows where all the sewer system connections are and how they are grafted into the main trunk line for the area.

I’m no expert, but even “Joe Plumber” could figure this one out: a capacity problem caused by massive over-development leaving almost no grass to absorb any excess rain, with all of it (runoff) running into the sewer system in the street.

Mark-Alan Whittle, Hamilton Mountain
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In association with The World According to: MAW