Repairs to ditch threaten to drain west-end wallets
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Repairs...271/story.html
Small group of resident, farmers fighting city over $700,000 bill
BY DAVID GONCZOL, THE OTTAWA CITIZENJUNE 10, 2009 10:45 PM
OTTAWA-West-end homeowners and farmers are facing huge bills to fix damage to a drainage basin — damage likely worsened when the Department of National Defence quietly changed municipal drainage patterns on its JTF2 site at Dwyer Hill.
A small group of nearby homeowners and farmers have been slapped with most of a $700,000 bill from the City of Ottawa for the work, with one farmer facing a $31,000 assessment and several others left with bills of between $12,000 and $15,000.
The farmers and homeowners say they never asked the city to fix the Dowdall Drain, but the city contends that a picnic-table meeting between locals and city staff in 2005, about the regular flooding of a roadway in Heron Lake Estates, constituted an official petition. Residents say they were told nothing about expensive studies that were conducted over the last four years until they each received their shares of the bill last month.
The two-kilometre drain is essentially a small stream flowing quietly through farmland and Heron Lake Estates before emptying into the Jock River. Under Ontario’s Drainage Act, anyone who owns land along the Dowdall Drain must pay for the studies and upgrades.
At a meeting Monday night of area residents and city officials hosted by Rideau-Goulbourn Councillor Glenn Brooks, engineer Andy Robinson presented the results of his four-year study and tried to lay out his plan to fix the drainage problems. Frustrated residents let loose with a unrelenting four hour attack.
Robinson now says, given the opposition, the city should only fix the annual flooding problem where the drain flows through Heron Lake Estates.
He said the city could face legal action if it does not fix this problem, where inadequate culverts become overwhelmed by spring runoff.
The drainage basin includes the property of farmer Ron Mayhew, who fought a long battle with the Department of National Defence over his treatment at the hands of the elite military unit JTF2, whose base is next to his farm. The dispute included a fight over a trench Mayhew found dug across his property, draining water from the base. In 2002, he received a legal notice from the city ordering him to clear blockages in the drainage basin connected to the trench, which he insisted he’d had no part in digging or permitting. The city eventually paid the bill.
Another part of the drainage problem apparently arose from changes to the Dowdall Drain by Goulbourn Township, prior to amalgamation.
Dave Western, president of the Heron Lake Community Association, said no one can understand why they are being forced to pay for an enormous culvert “that could accommodate mayor Larry O’Brien’s underground (transit) tunnel.”
Similarly, farmers outside of Heron Lake Estates, like Annette Anderson, say they have no drainage issues, but she will be paying $21,000, which was the cost of building the entire Dowdall drain in 1969.
Jack MacLaren of the Ontario Landowners Association said “shoddy” engineering of the culvert at Heron Lake estates and changes to the drain by former Goulbourn Township officials are both now the responsibility of the City of Ottawa, which should pay for any costs under Robinson’s report.
“The Department of National Defence were bad neighbours to Mr. Mayhew and they were bullies … and to the city and to the drainage superintendents and to all their neighbours. They just went ahead and trampled around on Mayhew’s farm and they went ahead and redug the ditch anyway they wanted to suit their needs and they just didn’t think they needed to consult anybody. They were immune to laws like the Drainage Act. They interfered with drainage on Mayhew’s property, changed the drainage for the municipal drain and DND just walked away and left the problem in Mr. Mayhew’s hands,” said MacLaren.
City council’s agricultural and rural-affairs committee is to decide tonight whether to accept the Robinson report and whether to recommend that council vote to proceed with the work.
Brooks, the local councillor, said Wednesday he will propose that the city only fix the bottleneck of water flow from Heron Lake Estates to the Jock River and split the cost between the city and the 40 property owners who live there. Under this plan the farmers upstream would not have to pay for the improvements.
However, he said, he was unsure whether the city can ignore Ontario’s Drainage Act to proceed with his plan and a legal opinion would be required. The committee meeting takes place tonight at 7 p.m. at the Alfred Taylor Centre, 2300 Community Way, North Gower.
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