Thanks Mayor Miller.....Another $1000 Hit

That I can't afford.

Ban eyed on downspouts tied to sewer

By ROB GRANATSTEIN, CITY HALL BUREAU

Toronto politicians are set to put a huge drain on your wallet if a plan to make downspout disconnection mandatory moves ahead this week.

The city is considering forcing every house with an eavestrough feeding rainwater directly to the sewer system to sever that connection.

The city is offering to pay half, with a maximum payment of $300.

"It's another tax," said Councillor Mike Del Grande. "It affects every homeowner in Toronto. Once this gets out to the public they will be furious."

It's estimated 50% of houses can be disconnected for less than $600. The current program, where the city will do the disconnection for free, costs the city $1,100 on average.

"I don't think it's fair to throw it on the taxpayer,"said Councillor Bill Saundercook. "Now the hammer comes down after the city's been doing a very lackadaisical job."

Toronto faces a big problem as the sewers are nearing capacity and often overflow after a storm.

Instead of going into the soft ground, rainwater runs from roofs, streets, sidewalks and driveways into the sewers.

Toronto, especially in the older parts of the city, has a combined storm and sewage sewer system. After a heavy rainfall the storm sewers overflow into the sanitary sewers that then go into the creeks and lake.

It also ends up flooding basements in the city.

At its current rate of disconnecting 2,300 houses a year, it would take 22 years for the city to hit its target of 40% of houses being cut off. That would cost Toronto $30 million.

If the mandatory disconnection program came in, the $300 rebate would cost the city about $75 million over 10 years, but 80% of homes would be off the sewer system.

If the city were to pay the full amount to disconnect the 250,000 homes needed, it would cost about $163 million.

"Anything we can take out of the sewers and do over land is worth doing," said Councillor Shelley Carroll, chairman of the city's works committee. "If the city continues to grow at the projected rate, we're going to have to take significant and expensive measures."

She expects the plan will be sent out for community consultation before being implemented. It's expected implementation will take a decade.

ROB.GRANATSTEIN@TOR.SUNPUB.COM