CORNWALL, Ontario – This last week saw two major traffic arteries in Cornwall close because of water pipe issues.
The first occurred late at night on Tuesday, July 25, on Brookdale Ave. right in front of Shoeless Joes when a service line broke. The second incident occurred on Saturday, July 29, in the morning when a city watermain broke on Sydney St. right behind the Giant Tiger.
The City of Cornwall’s General Manager of Infrastructure and Municipal Works John St. Marseille explained that increased rainfall was not the culprit in these cases, but rather a spike in demand placed on an aging waterworks system.
“Demand for water is increaseing and that has been putting more pressure on our network,” he said.
St. Marseille explained to Seaway News that there is 280 km of water pipes in Cornwall and that 70 km of that has aged to the point where they need to be replaced.
In all, St. Marseille said that there is a backlog of about $40 million worth of watermains that need to be replaced.
This year, Municipal Works hopes to replace $4 million worth of old watermains. Of that money, the City of Cornwall is providing between $1 – $2 million and senior levels of government are providing over $2 million.
However, St. Marseille said that this rate of replacement is not enough.
“We would need to do more to deal with the backlog, because every year we identify more pipes that have reached the end of their lifecycle and need to be replaced,” he said. “There are some pipes in Cornwall that are 100-years-old.”
