With spring and heavy rain events comes the seemingly inevitable overwhelming of the Azilda sanitary sewer system with storm water, flooded basements and raw sewage bypasses into Whitewater Lake.
This is a problem that will not go away unless the City of Greater Sudbury takes decisive action.
Azilda does not need a multimillion-dollar sanitary sewer upgrade; what it needs is real enforcement of the applicable bylaws and for the illicit downspout and sump connections to be disconnected from the system.
Voluntary compliance has proven not to be effective, and it is time for council to get serious and instruct staff to more stringently enforce the bylaw.
Hiring enforcement officers in the short term is much cheaper than expanding the system to take water that should not be in the system in the first place.
It is time to end the flooded basements and bypasses into Whitewater Lake, a body of water that sits on the precipice of failing to meet the guidelines on phosphorus levels and is in danger of permanent damage if this situation is permitted to continue.
Richard L. Paquette
Co-chair, Azilda CAN