Drainage and plumbing, West Vancouver
Drainage and Plumbing in West Vancouver
In West Vancouver the creek is part of the storm sewer, and the District says so in its own bylaw. Ditches and culverts count too, and 26 km of creek inside developed areas is carried on the books as stormwater infrastructure.
Which means a lot of what protects your house is not a pipe under the road. It is a channel, a culvert or a ditch, and on private land a good deal of it is yours. We camera the line before anybody quotes a number.
Half the District's culverts were undersized before anyone added climate change
The District went out and counted. In the Vinson, Brothers and Hadden Creek watersheds there are 159 major system conduits, and 108 of them are undersized for the 200 year storm under existing land use. Four more fail under future land use, and two more once climate change is added.
The inventory itself was incomplete. The District’s GIS listed 63 culverts across those three watersheds. Field survey found more than 130. In the Five Creeks watershed the 2013 plan flagged 18 existing culverts and 24 channel sections below the Upper Levels Highway as unable to safely carry high flows.
And here is the sentence from the District’s own project FAQ that explains a lot of West Vancouver basements. Existing properties below the highway were often built inside current creek setbacks and, in some cases, on top of creeks, with many culverts undersized and channel sections compromised by permitted and unpermitted encroachments. In January 2005 Pipe Creek overflowed, washed out Spencer Drive and flooded basements in the area.
Detention ponds were ruled out for the Five Creeks fix because the terrain is too steep to hold water anywhere. That is the same reason your lot cannot hold it either.
The rules that come out of all this are unusual and worth knowing before you hire anyone. Bylaw 5263 makes a stream, creek or ditch part of the municipal drainage system, and defines the municipal drainage works to include ditches and culverts alongside the pipes. It prohibits discharging drainage anywhere it could affect the stability of a slope or a ravine, cause nuisance or damage, or run straight onto the neighbouring property, and it gives an owner 30 days from written notice to correct an improper discharge.
Nothing soaks in here, and the District has measured it
The old version of this page talked about groundwater pouring down off the mountain. The District’s own consultants found close to the opposite. The surficial cover is dense, low permeability till, glaciomarine and glaciofluvial sediment sitting on granitic bedrock, and because that dense till and rock stop water moving down, most of the study area is moderate to poorly drained with little opportunity for natural infiltration.
The numbers are blunt. Bedrock generally sits less than one to two metres down. The slopes run 35% to 60%. And the flood model the District actually uses assumes a starting infiltration rate of five millimetres an hour falling to a final minimum of 0.2 mm an hour once the ground is partly saturated in winter.
Then there is how much rain lands on it. The Capilano Golf and Country Club gauge at 200.9 m elevation records an average yearly rainfall of 2,208.5 mm, with 70% of the annual total falling between October and March, and November the peak month at 352.2 mm. The District activates flood control measures whenever 50 mm or more is forecast.
Put those together and the conclusion writes itself. Water does not go down here. It goes across, until it finds a pipe, a ditch, a creek or a crawlspace.
The District’s own asset inventory backs that up from the other direction. It carries about 235 km of storm main, 3,400 manholes, 522 culverts, 19 detention basins and 26 km of creek inside developed areas, all counted as stormwater infrastructure. The oldest storm main went in during 1942, most of the system after 1964, and 57% of the mains are 300 mm in diameter or less. There is still vitrified clay in there, and about a kilometre of wooden main.
Signs worth acting on in West Vancouver
Just over half the housing here predates 1981 and about a fifth predates 1961, so a new PVC lateral can sit next door to a sixty year old one on the same street. These are the things worth a phone call.
- Water tracking across a driveway or terrace during a downpour instead of draining
- A ditch or culvert on the property holding water rather than moving it
- A wet crawl space or basement that only shows up in the November and December storms
- Erosion, undercutting or slumping at the top of a bank or a retaining wall
- A creek or channel on the property backing up at a screen or a grate
- Slow drains through the whole house at once
- A grinder pump alarm sounding or its red light flashing
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West Vancouver drainage and plumbing FAQ
Because it cannot get down. The District’s geotechnical work found dense till and granitic bedrock generally less than one to two metres below surface, and describes most of the area as moderate to poorly drained with little opportunity for natural infiltration. Its flood model uses a final infiltration rate of 0.2 mm an hour.
Usually yes. The District maintains screens, racks and culverts on municipal property or in municipal rights of way. Maintenance and erosion work for a watercourse on private property falls to the owner, except in rare cases with a statutory exception or a public right of way attached to title.
Not without permits. The District states that although the land is private, owners do not have the right to carry out work in and around watercourses without permits, and an Environmental Development Permit may be required along with senior government approvals.
The oldest storm main in the District system was installed in 1942, and while some sections predate 1963, most of the system went in after 1964. The inventory runs to about 235 km of storm main plus 3,400 manholes, 522 culverts and 19 detention basins, and 57% of the mains are 300 mm or smaller.
No, and the District says so in writing. Its single family stormwater guidelines state that perimeter drains shall not be connected to the storage facility, and that connecting the surface collection system to the footing drain upstream of the tank can cause backflow into the perimeter drain. Perimeter drain flow ties into the storm service downstream of the tank.
To the municipal storm system. The District has a mandatory roof leader connection policy, and Bylaw 5263 prohibits discharging drainage where it could destabilise a slope or a ravine, cause nuisance or damage, or run directly onto the neighbouring property. Drainage and sewerage may not be cross connected in either direction.
You do, unless you opt into the District’s programme. In October 2023 Council adopted a policy that the District would no longer install or maintain private sanitary systems, affecting fewer than 150 property owners. In April 2026 it approved a fee for service opt in. The District’s own page says it cannot provide a list of recommended contractors and does not sell parts.
The Capilano Golf and Country Club gauge at 200.9 m records an average of 2,208.5 mm of rain a year, with 70% of the annual total falling October through March. November is the peak at 352.2 mm, then December and January. The greatest single day rainfall in the record is 141.3 mm.
On purpose. The District says the open, unpaved ditches slow water as it drains off roads and adjacent properties, which reduces creek flows and erosion, and lets pollutants settle out before reaching the creeks and the ocean. They only work when they are clear.
All of it, from Park Royal and Ambleside through Dundarave and Westmount out to Caulfeild and Horseshoe Bay, and up through the British Properties and Rodgers Creek. The District of North Vancouver next door too.
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