By: Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press
With there being many conversations around the Council table about drainage and how it works, and confusion from the public on the Drainage Act, the Town of Essex invited community members out to the Harrow Arena last Wednesday evening where an informal information session on the topic was hosted.
The open house was a way to educate members of the public on how municipal drainage works, and how it can be utilized to improve drainage in residential neighbourhoods, Kevin Girard, Director of Infrastructure Services, said.
Over 60 residents, most of whom live in Colchester and Harrow, attended the event.“Drainage has always been a hot top,” Girard commented.
The Drainage Act – a provincial regulation – is a paid-by-benefit system, which means it is not included with municipal taxes and is instead assessed to the benefitting property owners. Because of that, residents can sometimes be surprised when they receive a drainage bill.
Unlike many communities in the Province, Essex levies its taxes differently, Girard said.
“The people who pay for urban drainage, their urban drainage is packaged up and paid for through their mill rate and their regular general tax rate,” Girard explained. Whereas all the people who are impacted by municipal drainage pay a different levy.”
That way, residents who are impacted by municipal drainage would pay that rural levy, which is only the cost for services related to rural-drainage.
Flooding has been a topic of concern, Girard added, though the Open House on drainage was planned before the recent flash flood took place in September. He suspected the info session would generate a number of individuals who wanted to learn more about flooding, town subsidy programs and infrastructure, and what the municipality has done in recent years to prevent excess water from accumulating during large storms.
Council has had a couple of different drainage-related conversations around the municipal decision-making table in the recent past; one being how drainage can be improved, and exploring different options to improve it when those significant rainfall events take place.
One conversation has concerned privately-owned, not assumed beach roads. During the open house, staff was able to provide information on how residents on these types of roads could get their roads improved and field questions on how they can improve drainage and be less impacted by floods.
The floods of August of 2023 and 2025 were significant events, Girard said, adding a lot of the improvements that would be made to drainage systems that residents want are not going to be resilient to the one-in-one-hundred-year storm events. He was sure, however, there are many who would benefit from some drain maintenance and improvements. He hoped staff would be able to educate residents on that process.
Information on the Town’s subsidy program, and emergency preparedness, can be found at https://www.essex.ca/en/live/flooding.aspx, Girard noted.
“The Town is always here to help,” he added, noting staff does not want residents to wait for open houses to reach out if they have questions. If anyone is experiencing flooding, they should be reporting it to the Town, and staff can try to help. “That may not always be a financial help or financial subsidy, but there is a lot of expertise in our Town that we can utilize to assist our residents.”
The Town does spend a significant amount of money in maintenance and investigations on drainage. The newest is the Inflow and Infiltration Program. Council, he added, has been great in supporting that program, which hosts fog testing in sanitary and storm systems to identify leaks or other issues.
The Town, Girard added, will develop a Servicing Master Plan this year, which was deferred due to the delay to the Official Plan. That will take a bigger picture look at the Town’s services, such as water, wastewater, and stormwater, to try to come up with growth-related, infrastructure resilient, and climate resilient solutions.
Since that recent flash flood, Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy said Council has asked staff to debrief on the instance and to see what can be done to better prevent flooding in Harrow. Another resolution directed staff to look at all municipal drains from the Colchester hamlet going west to outline what drains have been improved, what ones will be done, and if there are any gaps.
“I encourage you to flood-proof your home as much as you can, look at the [Town’s] subsidies, see what you can do,” Bondy said, urging residents to connect with staff before starting the process to ensure they are following the right procedures to be able to tap into the program.
She added the Town currently also has submitted an application for a Provincial grant to make improvements to the Harrow Sanitary Pump Station, which would help support more development.