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Fatberg clogs pipes, floods out Georgina residents

Fats, oils and grease cause sewer backup in Sutton

Yorkregion.com
February 28, 2020
Amanda Persico

On the bottom shelf of a flood-damaged bookshelf sits a bunch of photo albums Ruth de Vries spent the last year trying to sort and digitize.

De Vries’ home was one of about a dozen homes on Garrett Drive that experienced heavy basement flooding on Jan. 11 -- a day that saw ample rain, melting snow and localized flooding across the region.

“You can’t put a value on that,” said Sutton resident. “Look at your floor and look four inches up. You don’t realize how much stuff you have. And it’s gone.”

“There’s no bright side of getting a new basement. My basement was already finished,” she said. “You don’t realize how disruptive a flood is.”

According to Environment Canada, close to 145 millimetres of rain was recorded at the region’s weather station in King Township in January 2020. And about 55 per cent of January’s total rainfall fell on Jan. 11.

On top of that, the ground was frozen, leaving rainwater with no place to flow expect into the sewer.

Instead of going to the gym, de Vries spent that afternoon working out in her basement when she heard water bubbling from the toilet.

“I had no reason to be downstairs,” she said of her impromptu workout.

After sopping up the water with towels, she went to the laundry room to put the towels on spin where she was met with more water coming up from the laundry room sink.

“It was like the tide was coming in,” de Vries said. “It was a fountain. The whole basement was under water in 10 minutes.”

After helping her neighbour de Vries hand-bail water from the basement, Maddy Martin returned home only to find her basement had flooded, too.

“I was in shock. I stood at the top of the stairs and just started swearing,” said the Garrett Drive resident. “Water was coming in faster than we could pump it out.”

Water came back up through the floor drain, flowed over the toilet and up through shower drain, covering the entire Martin basement with about two inches of water.

Martin’s basement bathroom has to be reconstructed, drywall replaced and floors refinished throughout the basement -- estimated damages amounted to about $15,000 to $20,000.

Town crews, along with fire, responded that night.

The flooding could be attributed to two events that happened simultaneously: heavy rain not being absorbed by the frozen ground and a congealed fatberg partially blocking the sewer pipes.

Fats and oils slink down the kitchen sink, into the drain, into the sewer and the mess congeals, solidifies and becomes sticky.

Then, whatever comes down the pipe after often sticks to the congealed, fatty blob and creates a large blockage, called a "fatberg."

The Clean Water Foundation is behind the idontflush.ca initiative, bringing awareness to the damage caused by fats, oils and grease.

“It was a one off, with the storm and the blockage,” said the town’s acting water and wastewater manager Radu Apavaloae.

If it was a January regular day without the ample amount of rain, wastewater would not have backed up into local homes, he added.

“The amount of rain only exasperated the problem,” Apavaloae said. “It’s up to everybody to keep the fats and oils out of the sewers.”

Residents are reminded to only flush urine and feces down the toilet.

Over the years, town staff have dislodged items such as diapers, towels, sponges, toys and mop heads from the sewer system.

While those household items can block the pipes, flushing fats, oils and grease down the drain is more harmful and causes more damage.

“If we can keep fats and oils out of the sewer, that’s more than half the battle,” said the town’s operations and infrastructure director Rob Flindall.

The town runs an aggressive sewer-cleaning program where the town monitors the insides of each pipe with a remote camera and cleans the entire pipe using a special, industrial power-washer, Flindall said.

Pipes are rigorously cleaned on a regular three-year cycle.

The pipes in the Garrett and Burke drives were cleaned during the 2017-18 year, which means these particular set of pipes are on the roster to be flushed later this year.

Residents are encouraged to call the town’s main phone line at 905-476-4301.

“If water is coming up, call us,” Flindall said. “Someone else could be having the same problem. The faster we get out there, the faster we can fix the problem.”

What to do with fats, oils and grease (FOG):

Avoiding pouring fats, oils and grease down the drain or flushing down the toilet. FOG items also include sandwich spreads, salad dressings, butter margarine, sauces and gravies, milk and cream, and meat fat.