Your Countryside Park, your watershed

Why are we adding stormwater measures to the park?

Climate change will bring more intense storms and more frequent freeze-thaw cycles. Creating more spaces for stormwater to collect in neighbourhoods reduces flooding during storms.

There are two large stormwater pipes currently running next to Countryside Park. They carry runoff from storm sewers through the neighbourhood to Balzer Creek and the Grand River. Countryside Park is a good place to add stormwater facilities to collect and filter runoff. By adding stormwater storage to the neighbourhood, we will:

• Improve water quality in Balzer Creek and the Grand River;
• Reduce the risk of flooding;
• Reduce erosion in Balzer Creek;
• Improve resilience against climate change; and
• Enhance community safety.

Stormwater Master Plan

In 2016, the City of Kitchener Council approved a stormwater master plan. This plan created a strategy to manage stormwater for the next 15 years. Through this plan, we learned that only 25 percent of runoff in the city is managed through stormwater facilities. This means that 75 percent of runoff from heavy rainfall and snow melt flows into storm sewers, contaminating local creeks.

The master plan identified initial concepts for the installation of projects across Kitchener. As we look at each project more closely, we will examine the technical feasibility of adjusting the designs to meet community needs.

The Government of Canada awarded us nearly $50 million through the Disaster Mitigation Adaptation Fund. Access to this funding means we can install needed stormwater measures at a reduced cost to the community. And we can do this much sooner than would have been possible without the funding. We need to comply with funding requirements, which places an extra constraint on these projects.

We consulted city-wide on the stormwater master plan. That consultation met the needs of the master plan. But as we look closer at specific projects, we need to consult further with the community.

Consultation for the Class Environmental Assessment

This project was approved by the Ministry of the Environment in 2016 as part of the Integrated Stormwater Management Master Plan (ISWM-MP). If community consultations lead to required project modifications, we will seek to amend the relevant planning tools -- in this case, the Class Environmental Assessment, under which the ISWM-MP was completed.