Sewer Master Plan Update

Investing $180-million in Underground Infrastructure

Mayor Drew Dilkens was joined by Ward 6 Councillor Jo-Anne Gignac to provide an update on sewer construction and flood mitigation efforts in the City of Windsor. The announcement was held at the St. Paul Pumping Station, where engineering design has reached completion, with construction scheduled to begin in a few months.

In the fall of 2017, an 8-point plan to address flooding in the City was released. A few points Included in this plan were:

  • Making downspout disconnections mandatory city-wide.
  • Funding 100 per cent of the cost of backflow valves and sump pumps.
  • Completing the partly finished Riverside Drive Vista road and sewer project between St. Rose Avenue and Ford Boulevard
  • Investigating whether to include the disconnection of weeping tiles from sanitary sewers to the Basement Flooding Protection Subsidy program.
  • Investigating adding sewage ejection pumps to the Basement Flooding Protection Subsidy program.
  • Working with the Town of Tecumseh (whose sewage flows to Windsor’s treatment plants) to immediately review development policies to ensure new subdivisions don’t make the flooding threat worse.
  • Urging the Ontario government to expand its Disaster Recovery Assistance Program to include homeowners who suffered significant flooding from sewer backup, and create a flood insurance plan, to help the many Windsor residents who have been refused private flood insurance or offered insurance with inadequate coverage.
  • Accelerating the Sewer Master Plan, which was finalized in late 2020.

The Sewer Master Plan was created to set standards for the operation of the sewer systems and identify specific improvement projects that can be undertaken to both improve efficiency and reduce the risk of flooding caused by precipitation.

As part of City Council’s $5 billion Sewer Master Plan, the City is now spending $180-million across 36 sewer construction projects throughout the City of Windsor. The total sewer length of all these projects will be almost 30 kilometres.