Drainage and plumbing, Marpole
Drainage and Plumbing in Marpole
Marpole runs from Angus Drive east to Ontario Street, and from West 57th Avenue south to the North Arm of the Fraser. That strip is two different drainage problems stacked on one neighbourhood.
On the hill you are on compact till and a steep grade. On the flats you are on river silt inside the City’s designated floodplain. We camera the line before anybody quotes a number, and the footage is yours.
The floodplain, the midden, and why the bottom of Marpole is careful ground
About 19.1% of Marpole falls inside the City’s Designated Floodplain, the FCL 4.6 metre line, which the City frames as an extreme storm at a 1 in 500 annual probability plus a metre of sea level rise projected to 2100. 14.4% sits inside the present day Fraser risk scenario. Tested against real intersections rather than a grid, 32 named Marpole intersections are inside that floodplain, most of them along West Kent Avenue North and South, Hudson below West 75th, and the Manitoba and Ontario blocks in the high 60s.
The same low ground carries something else. The Marpole Midden, c̓əsnaʔəm, is an ancient Musqueam village and burial site between Montcalm and Milton streets south of Marine Drive, and it has been a National Historic Site of Canada since 1933. The City is blunt about what that means for anyone digging. Vancouver was built on archaeological sites protected by the BC Heritage Conservation Act, and the absence of a formally registered site on a property does not mean there is nothing there. If material turns up during ground disturbance, all work in the immediate area stops and the Provincial Archaeology Branch gets the call.
So the wettest ground in Marpole is also the ground where excavation is regulated. That is a real operational difference and it is why a trenchless option gets looked at first down there wherever the site allows it.
Up the hill the numbers are ordinary and the age is not. Of 2,803 dated detached parcels, 41.5% were built in 1969 or earlier and 462 date to 1949 or earlier. Until the 1960s most Vancouver furnaces ran on oil from tanks buried in the yard, usually near the furnace, and an unused tank now has to come out along with any contaminated soil. That is the thing that turns a routine perimeter drain dig into a different job, and it is worth knowing before the excavator arrives rather than after.
One more from the tax roll. 927 of those 2,803 detached parcels, 33.1%, were built between 1978 and 1998, and 31.2% of the dated strata units land in the same window. That is the Poly-B era. Poly-B is a grey supply pipe, banned by the National Plumbing Code in 1997. It is not a drain pipe, so it is a separate conversation from anything below your slab.
Marpole is a hill, and that changes everything
Marpole gets described as flat. It is not. The City’s own intersection list, run against an elevation model, puts Marpole’s 277 named intersections between 4 metres and 70 metres. Hudson Street alone drops from 70 metres at West 58th to 4 metres at West 75th. Granville goes from 69 metres at West 58th to 16 metres at SW Marine. That is roughly 3 to 4 metres of fall per block, for twelve blocks straight.
The sewer under the street follows the same split. There are 1,748 City sewer main segments under Marpole and 562 of them are still combined, one pipe carrying sewage and rainwater together. Split the neighbourhood at about West 64th Avenue and the picture is stark. North of it, 296 of 482 mains are combined, 61.4%. South of it, 21.0%. On the river flats it drops to about 7%. Vitrified clay is the single most common material down there, 681 of the 1,748 segments.
Then the ground itself changes. The Geological Survey’s mapping of this region describes the Vancouver upland as compact glacial till up to 25 metres thick, nearly impervious, so the surface has to slope for water to drain at all. Below 15 metres on the Fraser delta it describes loose, water saturated sediments, poorly drained, with a shallow water table. Marpole sits on both. That is where the high water table story is actually true, and it belongs to the bottom of the hill rather than to the whole neighbourhood.
The City finished separating 700 metres of combined sewer along Granville Street, West 59th Avenue and West 62nd Avenue in July 2026. Separated main in the street does not separate a private connection. When the City puts in separated sewers on your block, your own connection is the next piece.
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Drainage problem in Marpole?
Ryan picks up. Live dispatch, and you get a real arrival window on the call. We camera the line before anybody quotes a number, and you watch the monitor with us.
What Vancouver customers say
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I had very positive experience with Mamba Services, Ryan was amazing to work with and took care of my drain issues in no time. He arrived on time, was very professional and efficient in carrying out the work. What impressed me was how honest he was in recommending needed repair. He was very patient in explaining the different options. I will certainly call them for future projects.
Had an excellent experience. Ryan was fantastic, it was an after hours call late in the evening and he showed up exactly in the time frame he gave. Took care of the kitchen sink issue within minutes all systems were running like new. Pricing was extremely reasonable, Ryan was patient and explained everything to me while fixing my problem. I would highly recommend this company for any plumbing work.
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Marpole drainage and plumbing FAQ
No, and this matters. The City’s named intersections in Marpole run from 4 metres to 70 metres of elevation. Hudson Street drops from 70 metres at West 58th to 4 metres at West 75th, roughly 3 to 4 metres per block. Water on most Marpole lots does not pond, it runs, and it runs toward the river.
At the bottom of the hill, yes. The regional geological mapping describes ground below 15 metres on the Fraser delta as loose, water saturated sediment, poorly drained, with a shallow water table. Above about West 70th you are on compact glacial till instead, which is nearly impervious and drains by surface slope. Same neighbourhood, opposite problem.
Depends how far up the hill you are. 562 of the 1,748 City sewer main segments under Marpole are still combined. North of about West 64th Avenue it is 61.4%. South of it, 21.0%. On the river flats it is around 7%. We can tell you what is under your block before we come out.
Eventually yes. The City’s guidance is that when separated sewers go into your area, your home’s sewer connection gets renewed to be part of it, and properties served by a separated system need separated systems of their own. The Granville, West 59th and West 62nd work finished in July 2026, so those blocks are the live example.
19.1% of Marpole falls inside the City’s Designated Floodplain at the 4.6 metre flood construction level, and 32 named intersections sit inside it. Most of them are along West Kent Avenue North and South, Hudson below West 75th, and the Manitoba and Ontario blocks in the high 60s. The City’s flood proofing page is the place to check your own address.
Two reasons and both are about the ground. It is the low, saturated end of the neighbourhood, and the Marpole Midden, c̓əsnaʔəm, is a National Historic Site of Canada sitting between Montcalm and Milton south of Marine Drive. Archaeological sites in BC are protected whether or not they are registered, so keeping ground disturbance to access pits is simply the sensible way to work there.
Work in the immediate area stops and the Provincial Archaeology Branch gets contacted for direction. That is the City’s own instruction, not our policy. It applies across Vancouver and it applies with particular force on this strip.
Two things. The perimeter drainage and lateral, because vitrified clay is the most common material in the City’s own main here and private lines came from the same era. And the buried oil tank, because until the 1960s most Vancouver furnaces ran on oil from a tank in the yard, and an unused one has to come out with any contaminated soil around it.
Worth checking rather than guessing. 33.1% of Marpole’s dated detached parcels and 31.2% of the dated strata units were built between 1978 and 1998, which is the Poly-B window, and the National Plumbing Code banned it in 1997. It is grey, and it is a supply pipe rather than a drain pipe, so it is a separate job from your drainage.
Marpole only actually touches three City neighbourhoods, Kerrisdale, Oakridge and Sunset, and we work in all of them. We also cover the rest of Vancouver plus Burnaby, New Westminster and the North Shore.
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Water where it should not be?
Ryan picks up. Live dispatch, and you get a real arrival window on the call.