Drainage and plumbing, Willingdon Heights
Drainage and Plumbing in Willingdon Heights, Burnaby
The combined sewer boundary runs straight through this neighbourhood, along Union Street. North of it the pipe under the road still carries rain and sewage together. South of it, it does not.
Same neighbourhood, two different plumbing worlds. We camera the line before anybody quotes a number, and on this grid that camera answers a real question.
What the City's map says is under your street
Willingdon Heights sits between Boundary Road on the west and Willingdon Avenue on the east, with Hastings Street as the north edge and the ground running south to Graveley and on toward Lougheed. Inside that box the City of Burnaby’s drainage map does not give one answer. It gives four.
North of Union Street the drainage area is Combined, and the overflow route is Burrard Inlet. Most of the neighbourhood south of Union sits in North Arm Still Creek. The Willingdon Avenue edge around Parker sits in Beecher Creek, and the same edge around Kitchener and south sits in Brentwood. Four drainage areas, one neighbourhood.
The pipe matches the split. In the strip from Hastings down to Union there are 65 combined mains, nearly five kilometres of them, 45 vitrified clay and 20 concrete, and 52 of the 65 went in during 1964. South of Union there are only two combined segments left. What is down there instead is the original sanitary main from the veterans subdivision: 75 segments carrying a 1948 install date, and 73 of those 75 are clay. The block runs from Graveley up to Parker and from Gilmore east to about Beta.
There is asbestos cement in the ground too, 35 sanitary segments and 34 storm segments in the south block. Worth knowing before anybody cuts into one.
The neighbourhood itself explains the 1948 date. It grew out of the 1944 National Housing Act, and the 1948 brochure called it the largest single veteran housing project in Canada as far as homes for individual ownership goes, roughly 500 homes on a Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation subdivision. Willingdon Heights Park opened in 1949 and the community church in May 1952. The houses and the pipe went in together, which is why the install dates cluster the way they do.
There are 1,566 City catch basins inside the neighbourhood envelope. On the flat top of the grid those grates are most of the drainage story, and Burnaby asks residents to check that the gutter and basin next to their property are clear.
Flat on top, a cliff at the bottom
The top of the neighbourhood barely moves. From Hastings down to Napier Street the ground falls about 8 m over roughly 700 m. Then it gives way. From Napier to the Lougheed Highway edge it drops 61 m, most of that between Charles Street and Graveley Street.
It tilts sideways too. At Parker Street latitude, Boundary Road sits about 46 m below Gilmore Avenue. Down at Kitchener Street the gap is still there, Boundary Road at 20 m against Gilmore at 47 m.
Two different jobs on the same street name. Up on the flat bench water does not leave a lot by itself, so the perimeter drain is doing all the work, and when it silts up the water has nowhere at all to go. Down on the grade the lot is receiving whatever the blocks above it shed, and the pitch changes what a repair costs before anyone opens the ground. The City’s own report on private side separation lists grade, retaining walls and distance from the property line as the things that move the number. That is why we measure and scope instead of quoting off a photo.
One more thing that changes the stakes here. Typical lots run about 33 ft by 122 ft and the local listings sell laneway house potential and mortgage helper suites. That means basements in use. A wet basement in Willingdon Heights is not just a nuisance in a storage room, it is a tenant and a rent cheque, and it is the reason people here would rather find the problem on a monitor than after the fact.
The Boundary Road edge deserves its own sentence. It is the lowest ground in the neighbourhood on both transects, and it is where arriving water collects rather than where falling water starts. The fix on a lot like that is rarely regrading alone. It is usually a pit, a pump and a discharge point that actually clears the property.
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Drainage problem in Willingdon Heights?
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Willingdon Heights drainage and plumbing FAQ
It comes down to which side of Union Street you are on. The City’s drainage map puts everything from Union north into the Combined area, and everything south of it into separated areas. There is no way to tell from the surface, which is what the camera is for.
On a combined system the rain off your roof and the waste out of your house go down one pipe. In heavy weather the volume can overload it, and the City says that can push untreated sewage into Burrard Inlet. On your side of the property line the same overload is what backs a basement floor drain up.
1948, and it is still there. The City records 75 sanitary main segments in this neighbourhood with a 1948 install date, and 73 of them are vitrified clay. That rectangle runs from Graveley up to Parker and from Gilmore east to about Beta.
Almost certainly not. Burnaby’s own council report says separating the public side removes about 30% of the stormwater going into the combined system, and the other 70% comes off private property. Since 1989 only about 10% of private side systems have been separated. The pipe from your house to the property line is yours.
There is. The regional liquid waste plan sets 2050 for Northwest Burnaby and 2075 for Southeast Burnaby. The City is also running a grant to offset the cost of upgrading a combined connection from the home to the new City lines, so it is worth asking where you stand rather than waiting to be told.
No. Burnaby’s Engineering Design Criteria Manual is explicit that every legal lot gets its own separate service connection, with a minimum size, a minimum grade and an inspection chamber on residential connections. If someone told you otherwise, camera it and find out.
No, and it is one of the things that keeps the overflows going. The City’s manual says the sanitary system is meant to exclude storm water, roof drains, footing drains and groundwater, and that the rainwater system is for rainwater only.
Clay pipe is jointed, and a root only needs one gap. Burnaby now requires 2.0 m of clearance between a street tree and a sewer service, plus a root barrier beside sidewalks on tree lined boulevards. That rule protects new work. It does nothing for a lateral that went in the ground in 1948.
Often, yes. On the flat bench between Hastings and Napier there is only about 8 m of fall across the whole strip, so nothing drains by luck. The perimeter drain is doing all of the work, and when it silts the water simply stays. A camera and a flush will tell you which it is.
Yes. Boundary Road sits roughly 46 m below Gilmore Avenue at the same latitude, so that edge is the bottom of the hollow. You are dealing with arriving water rather than standing water, and the plan there normally involves a pit and a pump rather than grade alone.
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Water where it should not be?
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