Flood mitigation

ON THIS PAGE

Types of flooding in Edmonton
Public priorities for flood protection
Our Flood Mitigation Plan
- Stormwater Integrated Resource Plan (SIRP)
- What you can do to protect your home or business
Next steps

Working together for a flood resilient future

As recently as 2016, Edmonton has experienced significant flooding caused by large rainfall storms. The impacts of flooding to citizens, the environment, society and property are substantial.

Everyone has a stake in flood mitigation. Our plan envisions all stakeholders—citizens, businesses, industry, the City of Edmonton and EPCOR—working together to:

Identify areas of Edmonton that have the highest risk of impact from flooding
Engage the community to frame our plan around shared priorities
Build a plan to slow, move, secure, predict and respond to flood waters in the community
Empower home and property owners to help flood-proof private property

Clean50 Award

EPCOR's flood mitigation efforts have been nationally recognized with a Canada's Clean50 Top Project Award, and a second for Individual Honouree. These awards highlight EPCOR's innovation and dedication to protecting customers and the communities they live in.

Types of flooding in Edmonton

There are two types of flooding that may occur in Edmonton:

Flooding from heavy rainfall events within the city. This happens when there is a large amount of rain in a short period of time within the city boundary that overwhelms the sewer network resulting in surface ponding and potential sewer backups.

Flooding from melting snowpack in combination with heavy rainfall across the North Saskatchewan watershed. When this happens, the river rises and may overtop its banks and move onto properties located along the banks of the river.

Public priorities for flood protection

Priorities for protecting against floods

In 2018, we engaged the public through a comprehensive survey to understand citizens' priorities for protecting against floods. The ranking model we're using is driven by this research. Based on Edmontonians' priorities, the higher risk areas that we're targeting are:

Protection of hospitals and urgent care facilities, and essential services such as fire, police, EMS and utilities
Protection against risks to human life and agencies that provide support for vulnerable populations
For the city overall, prioritizing protection against health and safety and social impacts from flooding

Financial and environmental impacts were ranked lower overall
In general, impacts that were reversible, temporary or insurable were of lower relative importance

Impacts prioritized by public opinion

We're investing in flood-resiliency in areas with a high risk of flood impacts and targeting drainage improvements and homeowner programs to reduce the risk.

This includes medium-high and high-risk areas (Groups A – E) as well as social service agencies, hospitals and essential services. Groups F - G will be included in conjunction with other construction activities such as Building Great Neighbourhoods.

Health and safety: 30%
Social: 30%
Financial: 25%
Environment: 15%

Our Flood Mitigation Plan

How we're reducing the risk of flooding

We've been active in addressing stormwater flooding in parts of Edmonton where there has already been significant flooding. For example, flood mitigation improvements in the Millwoods area are ongoing, and four dry ponds in Parkallen and Steinhauer/Erminskin are in development.

Future flood mitigation work will include a combination of homeowner programs, drainage system improvements, green infrastructure and planning. In addition, we're creating a smarter stormwater network that will allow us to anticipate and react to storms in real time using monitoring and control technology.

Stormwater Integrated Resource Plan (SIRP)

Our Stormwater Integrated Resource Plan (SIRP) is a 20-year, $1.6-billion plan that includes five themes to SLOW, MOVE, SECURE, PREDICT and RESPOND to flooding in Edmonton neighbourhoods. This strategy addresses flooding risks from health and safety, environmental, social and financial perspectives. The plan is detailed in the May 2019 Utility Committee report.

We slow the entry of stormwater into the drainage network by absorbing it in green infrastructure and holding it in ponds, creating space in the collection system during storm events.

Dry ponds — green spaces that act as catch basins for excess stormwater during heavy rainfalls; we're proposing 31 dry pond-sites (#1 on the below image)
Low impact development — rain gardens, bioretention basins, box planters and tree soil cells that have both flood mitigation and climate change mitigation benefits to reduce impacts of drought and heat waves (#2 on the below image)

EPCOR will also be expanding on the SIRP SLOW theme to address urban flooding risk in the Rossdale neighbourhood in the coming years through the addition of green infrastructure and storage components, such as rain gardens and tree cells, to manage intense rainfall events and reduce risk to property.

We move excess water safely away from areas at risk, quickly and efficiently, by increasing capacity in the drainage system to handle peak water flow.

Tunnels and trunks (#3 on the below image)
Separation of storm and sanitary sewers — where there are combined storm and sanitary systems in high-risk areas, we'll separate them, increasing the amount of stormwater we can move in extreme weather and reducing the risk of backups to nearby properties (#3 on the below image)

We help secure individual properties in higher risk areas against sewer backups, overland flooding and river flooding.

Enhanced Building Flood Proofing for residential, multifamily and commercial properties (6,000 high-risk properties) coordinating their flood-proofing with EPCOR investments on adjacent public lands (#4 on the below image)
Engage and educate owners of 40,000 homes in targeted high and medium-high risk areas to identify and implement flood-proofing measures on their properties, including backwater valve installation (#4 on the below image)
Additional control gates at outfalls (#5 on the below image)
Increased maintenance and repair priorities on higher risk assets to reduce inflow/infiltration (#6 on the below image)

We predict and manage the movement of stormwater through smart sensors and technologies that integrate into the collection system.

Sensors and automatic controls at ponds, underground storage pipes and underpasses (#7 on the below image)
Real time dashboard map incorporating data from sensors, controls and weather radar stations (#8 on the below image)

We respond through the fast rollout of flood barriers, traffic diversions and public communications to protect life, safety and property.

Emergency response in coordination with the City of Edmonton Office of Emergency Management (#8 on the below image)

What you can do to protect your home or business

Every Edmontonian has a stake in flood mitigation for our city. Beyond addressing risk, we have an opportunity to make our city stronger and greener, while protecting life and what matters most to us.

Our currently planned flood mitigation projects will take 20 years to complete — drainage projects are often complex and take time to design and construct. Where there is significant community impact we will be taking time to engage the community on the project options. However, you can take action to reduce your own flood risk today. We offer:

Did you know?

In the event of a severe flood from the river overtopping its banks, the City of Edmonton and Alberta Environment and Parks would activate their Emergency Operations Centre (EOC). EPCOR water, drainage and power utilities are part of this EOC and work together to take action to protect citizens and critical infrastructure in Edmonton.

There are several things you can do to help maintain your home and help keep water away. Learn more about flood prevention maintenance and programs.

Help to protect your home from a sewer line back-up by installing a backwater valve. Our Backwater Valve Subsidy offers financial assistance by providing up to $800 for the installation of an interior or exterior backwater valve.

Note: homes built after 1989 will have a backwater valve; anything prior to that year will not likely have one.

As part of SIRP SECURE, EPCOR provides a free Flood Prevention Program available to residents in the City of Edmonton.Our flood proofing advisors are available to help residents identify their individual property risks and options to mitigate those risks. Included in this program is a backwater valve subsidy for homes that meet the eligibility requirements.

Book a free flood prevention check

Book a free flood prevention check with one of our flood proofing advisors:

Phone: 780-944-7777
Email: floodprevention@epcor.com

Next steps

We're proposing a capital and operational plan to the City of Edmonton's Utility Committee, and asking for the committee's feedback on our preferred timeline and approach.

We're recommending a scenario that implements capital and operational changes over 20 years at a cost of approximately $1.6 billion in capital investment. This includes the recently approved $59 million in flood mitigation grants from the provincial and federal governments to support this plan.

In addition, we'll be recommending to the City of Edmonton a non-routine rate adjustment for 2020/2021 to fund early implementation of the SIRP strategy prior to the next formal Performance Based Rate application for 2022-2027.

Our Stormwater Integrated Resource Plan includes significant improvements to Edmonton's drainage system that are designed to slow and move stormwater away from high-risk areas. These projects will work in tandem with other strategies to slow, move, secure, predict, and respond to stormwater events.

These include:

Dry ponds — green spaces that act as catch basins for excess stormwater during heavy rainfalls. We are proposing 31 dry pond sites.
Tunnels, trunks and sewer separations — where there are combined storm and sanitary systems in high-risk areas, we will separate them, increasing the amount of stormwater we can move in extreme weather and reducing the risk of backups to nearby properties.