Hello and welcome to the virtual public information centre
for the Finch Stormwater Pumping Station Schedule ‘B’ Class
Environmental Assessment being undertaken by the Region of Peel.
Thank you for your interest.
We have recently initiated this study
and we look forward to sharing our progress to date.
I’m Laura Verhaeghe,
the Communications Manager with GM BluePlan Engineering,
working alongside our Project Manager, Eric Duivesteyn.
Our firm is supporting the Region in the delivery of this Class
EA, with Paul Rastrullo acting as the Region’s Project Manager.
We have engaged other experts at the Region of Peel, GM BluePlan,
and other specialist consulting firms to provide technical, environmental, cultural
and logistical expertise to ensure a comprehensive approach
to this study.
We would like to acknowledge that the land on which we gather,
and on which the Region of Peel operates,
is part of the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit.
For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples inhabited and cared for this land,
and continue to do so today.
In particular,
we acknowledge the territory of the Anishinbek, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee
and Ojibway/Chippewa peoples; and land that is home to the Metis;
and most recently, the territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit.
We are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land, and by doing do,
give our respect to its first inhabitants.
This virtual Public Information Centre
is part of the Environmental Assessment for the Finch Stormwater Pumping Station.
The station is located at 7848 Finch Avenue West in Brampton,
between Steeles Avenues and Highway 427.
It consists of two separate structures as shown, and helps protect
the surrounding area from flooding during rain storm and snow melt events.
The Finch Stormwater Pumping Station is aging and needs upgrades
to meet current standards and to provide reliable operation.
This Public Information Centre
provides an opportunity for the public and stakeholders
to learn about our decision-making process, ask questions and provide
feedback on the purpose of the study and preliminary recommendations.
Questions and comments related to the PIC materials
can be submitted to the Region of Peel through the project website
or directly to the Region’s Project Manager, Paul Rastrullo
at paul.rastrullo@peelregion.ca from June 1, 2023
to June 15, 2023.
On June 30, 2023 responses to questions and comments will be posted
on the website.
The Municipal Class Environmental Assessment
(EA) process is a decision-making framework that Ontario municipalities
follow when planning for construction of new infrastructure
or rehabilitation of existing infrastructure.
This study follows the Municipal Engineers Association Schedule ‘B’ Class
EA process, which needs to satisfy Phases 1 and 2,
including identification of the problem or opportunity, development and evaluation
of alternative solutions, and consultation with the public and other stakeholders.
What is stormwater?
Stormwater is runoff from rainstorms and melted snow.
On natural surfaces, the water is absorbed into the soil.
On hard surfaces, such as roads and parking
lots, the water cannot be absorbed by the soil
and starts to accumulate and flow towards low-lying areas.
This can cause flooding in urban areas that have a lot of paved surfaces.
As a result, municipalities construct stormwater infrastructure,
which includes underground pipes and street grating
that collect and divert stormwater towards nearby water
bodies such as creeks and rivers. There are instances where stormwater
accumulates in low lying areas and needs to be pumped uphill
to reach a water body and prevent flooding.
Stormwater Pumping Stations, such as the Finch Stormwater Pumping Station,
are built to pump accumulated water in these low-lying areas.
These structures often need a small building nearby
to store the electrical equipment needed to run the pumps.
The Finch
Stormwater Pumping Station consists of two parts: a wet well
and a control building, which are located approximately 200m apart.
The wet well is a below ground concrete structure housing two pumps.
Stormwater from the area drains into this wet
well through a series of storm pipes and is pumped from the wet
well into the Finch Avenue stormwater collection system.
The control building houses electrical equipment.
The station is designed to prevent flooding on Finch Avenue
during the worst storm that is projected to occur about once every 10 years.
If there is a pump failure or if the flow to the station
exceeds its capacity, there is a risk of flooding on Finch Avenue.
The first step in any Class
EA process is to define the Problem and Opportunity Statement.
This answers the question of why we are undertaking this study
and what are we trying to address.
Our statement for this study is as follows:
The Finch Stormwater Pumping Station, constructed in 1984, was designed
to lift stormwater from a low-lying area under a railway underpass
to a nearby storm sewer to protect the area from flooding.
The station is aging and requires upgrades to bring the equipment
to current standards and address increasing climate change impacts.
This study will evaluate alternative locations for the upgraded facility,
with consideration for social, environmental, regulatory,
and cost impacts, along with technical feasibility.
The area included in the study covers a small segment
of Finch Avenue in the City of Brampton and the City of Mississauga.
A segment of the CN railway is included in the study area.
The City of Toronto municipal border is nearby to the east,
outside of the study area.
The existing Finch
Stormwater Pumping Station is in Brampton.
The wet well is located next to the CN Railway on the northwest side.
The control building is located 200m away along
Finch Avenue near commercial buildings.
Our approach for developing
a preferred stormwater management solution consists of 5 steps.
First, we develop a Long List of Alternative Locations.
Second, we screen each Alternative based on “must-have” criteria.
Third, we develop a Short List of Alternative Facility Locations
within the Preferred Area and complete a detailed evaluation.
Fourth, we develop a Short List of Alternative Access Road Alignments
for the Preferred Facility Location and complete a detailed evaluation.
Lastly, the preferred facility upgrade alternative
is determined in consultation with stakeholders.
We have developed a long list of alternative areas
for the upgraded station.
The alternatives include four quadrants to the west,
north, east, and south corners of Finch Avenue and the CN Railway.
The alternatives are screened based on whether they provide sufficient land
to house the facility without impacting existing structures on private property,
and whether the facility could be constructed
within Region-owned land without appropriation.
Of the four alternative areas, Alternative A, which contains
the existing pumping station, passes the screening level evaluation
and is carried forward for detailed evaluation.
The detailed evaluation will be based on four categories
of criteria: natural environment, socio-cultural environment,
technical feasibility, and economic or cost considerations.
We have developed a draft list of criteria and are interested
in your opinion as to whether there are other criteria to consider
and what criteria are of the highest priority to you.
The next step is to develop a short list
of possible control building locations within the Alternative A location.
We identified
three potential alternatives. The alternative to do nothing
and keep the existing facility as is was considered, as this provides
a baseline scenario for comparison purposes during the detailed evaluation.
Facility Alternative 1 consists of building a new control
building at the same location as the existing one
and keeping the wet well in its current location.
Facility Alternative 2 consists of building a new control building
next to the existing wet well, maintaining the current wet well location
and demolishing the existing control building.
The three facility location alternatives
are then evaluated against the detailed evaluation criteria.
The results are summarized in this table.
The option to do nothing does not meet current design standards,
which results in a higher risk of flooding and potential impacts to the community.
Overall, it ranked the lowest. Facility Alternative 1
is expected to have some constructability challenges
as the new control building would need to be constructed directly
next to the existing control building with limited space.
Furthermore,
the control building would still be 200m from the wet well,
which makes vehicle access to maintain pumps more difficult.
Overall, it ranked second. Facility
Alternative 2 improves operator access to the site
by locating the control building next to the wet well.
This alternative ranked the highest.
In our draft evaluation, we carried forward Facility Alternative 2
with the control building next to the wet well as the preferred location.
Now that the preliminary
preferred location for the stormwater facility is determined,
we developed a short list of alternative road alignments to access the facility.
Access roads are important to allow vehicles
to reach the facility to inspect and maintain equipment.
We identified three road alignment alternatives.
Access Alternative 1 consists of building an access road from Finch Avenue.
Access Alternative 2
provides access through the nearby Canadian Blood Services parking lot
and by building a short road extension to connect to the proposed station.
This would require a permanent easement through private property.
Finally, Access
Alternative 3 provides access through a driveway on private property
owned by Granite, along with construction of a new section of road
through the unpaved perimeter of the Canadian Blood Services property.
This alternative requires a permanent easement
through two private properties.
The three alternative access road alignments were evaluated
against the detailed evaluation criteria, as summarized in this table.
Access Alternative 1 is expected to have the smallest environmental impact
and will not require any property acquisition or easements,
resulting in the lowest capital cost.
This alternative will be somewhat more challenging
to construct to accommodate steeper slopes in this area, and additional
traffic controls will be required to work close to Finch.
Overall, Alternative 1 is ranked the highest.
Alternative 2 requires property and has the highest capital cost.
Alternative 3
also requires property, and has greater environmental impacts
as it passes close to a wetland and potential animal habitat.
Alternative 1 with access from Finch Avenue was carried forward
as the preferred access road alternative in our draft evaluation. Overall,
our draft assessment determined the preferred solution for this
project which is to construct a new control building on the south side
of Finch Avenue, west of the CN Rail, next to the existing wet well
and install a new access road from Finch Avenue.
The schedule for this Class EA is shown below.
We are nearing the end of Phase 2 and are currently
at the agency and public consultation stage.
We welcome your participation in this study
and will be open to questions and comments until June 15, 2023. Once
we receive feedback, we can move towards selecting a final preferred solution.
The construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in 2024.
We appreciate that you are taking the time to watch, listen
and review the information as part of this public information centre.
We want to hear from you!
Please let us know your thoughts
by either filling out a comment form on the project webpage
or emailing the Region’s Project Manager, Paul Rastrullo.
All the contact information and content are available on the project website.
The Region of Peel is committed to meet the requirements outlined
in the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.
Please contact the project manager if you require an alternative
format of this document
or need support and accommodations to provide feedback for this study.
On behalf of the Region of Peel, we thank you for your interest
in the Finch Stormwater Pumping Station Upgrades Class Environmental Assessment.
Thank you for watching this video and we look forward to receiving your input.