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NEWS: AT CITY HALL

NEWS

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At City Hall
In Brief
Way To Go

Prospect of a big flood has city officials
worried

By PHILIP McLEOD, The Londoner

The big flood of 1937, on which London bases most of its current high
water plans and policies, is seen as an event that happens once every 250
years.

So the next big flood, theoretically speaking, isn’t due until the year
2187, right?

Well, probably no – at least if global warming predictions are correct.
And, says Slobodan Simonovic, a professor at Western, research chairperson
of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, and a person who studies
extreme weather for a living, they almost certainly are.

Dr. Simonovic made one of several linked presentations to city
council’s environment and transportation committee (ETC) Monday night
which warned, in effect, London needs to rapidly update its risk
assessment of the consequences of another big flood.

And taxpayers also need to get prepared for a big bill to cover the
associated costs.

Added Peter Steblin, the city engineer: “Weather patterns are changing.
We could go another 10 or 20 years before we have a significant event – or
it could happen tomorrow.”

In the context of planning for a lot of unexpected water and what to do
with it, the city has developed models based on historic weather data. Dr.
Simonovic warned, however, those models are now obsolete because of rapid
changes towards extremes in weather patterns.

For example, Peterborough got hit with two storms, both considered in
the 250-year range, within a short period of time. The last one, in 2004,
dumped 250 mm. of rain – that’s 10 inches – on the eastern Ontario city in
24 hours, more than half of it in four hours. Existing storm sewer systems
were overwhelmed and there was extensive flooding and a $100 million
cleanup bill.

London has seen some serious weather, to. On July 9, 2000, a series of
thunderstorms dumped 173 mm. of rain on the city – which was pretty close
to 250-year expectations. There was minor flooding, but existing systems
were taxed to the limit.

Many of the storm draining systems London depends on are decades old
and were built to standards not considered reasonable today. Fixing them –
and that would be a long-term prospect, says Ron Standish, the city’s
director of wastewater and treatment – would be very expensive.

In the shorter term, however, the city can develop standards more in
keeping with growing fears that it could apply to new developments. One
consequence of that would be an increase to new housing costs to pay for
bigger storm-water management systems.

It could also redraw the high water mark of its flood plain,
restricting development in areas where flooding could occur if there was a
major storm, or build higher dikes to protect facilities – like the Oxford
St. pollution plant – that could be threatened by flooding.

The University of Western Ontario, among others, might be unhappy with
a change in the floodplain. Much of its undeveloped property would be
below the line and therefore could face significant building
restrictions.

Yes, but “we’re not in danger of becoming a New Orleans in the near
future?” speculated ETC member Cheryl Miller (Ward 14).

“There are no guarantees in life,” Mr. Steblin responded. “What we are
seeing is that the potential for that is going up.”

ETC is now recommending to city council – which will vote on the matter
this coming Monday – that work begin immediately on updating its risk
assessment studies. Before the year is out, that work will lead to a new
round of discussions about how valid are the concerns about changing
climate and how ready is London to cope with a new reality on the part of
Mother Nature.

CANDID CAMERA – ETC member Stephen Orser (Ward 4), has pushed
the city into the first step that could lead to cameras in all of London’s
320 taxis.

The cameras would take a picture of every passenger, but these would be
made available only to the police in the event the taxi was involved in
some kind of incident.

Taxi cameras have been credited with a significant decline in violence
against taxi drivers in places like Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg.
Windsor is in the process of making cameras mandatory, its answer to the
recent slaying of a cab driver.

Councillor Orser, himself a former taxi driver, doesn’t want London to
wait until that happens here.

See the current edition of The Londoner for
more stories