Hamilton Township Resident Says Northumberland County Culvert Costing Thousands of Dollars in Water Damage To His Grandmothers House

Pete Fisher
3 years ago
• Categories: Editor Choice, Local

A Camborne man said his grandmothers house located at 3360 Burnham Street North has received thousands of dollars in water damage as a result of the work Northumberland County has done.

Colton Johnston lives with his grandmother at the house and showed Today’s Northumberland the latest damage on Thursday, February 17, 2022.

There is a ditch on the east side of the roadway and a cross-culvert leads the water to the west side of the road. Because of the grade and slope, the water has been goes between his grandmothers house and neighbours house, on private property, and, at times, right into the house causing damage to the basement and eating away at the foundation.

A property was developed approximately four or five years ago on the east side and a house was built on a hill.

Johnston said, “because they put a house up there, they’ve diverted the water coming down his driveway into a ditch across the road. They’ve dug the ditch deeper right across the road from our driveway to help divert the water.”

There is no ditch on the west side where Johnston’s grandmother lives, so when there is large amounts of water flowing, it goes onto private property, and, at times floods the home.

The cross-culvert has been in the road for as long as Johnston can remember, but with the excess amount of water now – it’s a problem that’s costing thousands in repairs.

“The culvert they put in, there is no ditch to it, from it. It comes right out beside our driveway and they let it go between us and the neighbours property where there is a natural “v” in the property and they expect it to hold all this water.”

With the amount of rain on Thursday, Johnston said when he got up to check the basement, almost half the basement was flooded.

Johnston said he spent most of the day trying to keep the water from damaging a new furnace and water heater among other items in the fully furnished basement.

“The path (of water on Thursday) came right in, it flooded our garage. You can hear water running behind the drywall in the basement.”

The cross-culvert has been there for as long as Johnston can remember, but when the work was done to the ditch is when the problems started.

Johnston said, “there was always a little bit of water that was diverted, but once they dug the ditch deeper – everything just flooded to the bottom of the hill.”

“There was no thought after it was diverted onto our property where it was going to go after that. Basically once it wasn’t on the road or in their ditch it wasn’t their problem – now it’s our problem.”

A representative from Northumberland County came to Johnston’s residence on Thursday to look at the problem.

“He told us, that the water wasn’t running on his road, so it’s not his water, it’s not his responsibility. It’s the responsibility of the homeowner “

Today’s Northumberland reached out to Northumberland County on Thursday.

Director of Communications, Kate Campbell e-mailed on Friday afternoon stating:
· In undertaking any road construction and maintenance activities, municipalities are required to evaluate, and minimize any impact to, natural watersheds and watercourses.

· Historical GIS imaging of the area in question shows natural watershed from the hills on the east to the lower-lying lands on the west, and over to a regulated watercourse behind properties on the west side, with houses to the west on lower-lying lands and flood plains. Improvements to private property can be undertaken by homeowners to improve existing drainage patterns in these low-lying areas.

· A cross culvert was installed several decades ago under Burnham Street north to ensure that the natural east-west flow of water towards the regulated watercourse on the west side was not obstructed by the road, conveying water from the east under the road instead of overtop of it. In 2019, County crews installed an entrance to an existing property on the east side of Burnham Street north, which included installation of an entrance culvert to maintain water flows in the east ditch. No other drainage-related measures were required or implemented. Neither the positioning nor the function of the cross culvert under Burnham Street north were addressed as part of this work.