Content
Skip to Main ContentAccessibility Help
Sudbury

Sudbury resident wants city to pay for lawn repairs after flood

A Sudbury resident is doing battle with the city after a water main break destroyed her lawn.

City says none of the 32 claims related to a water main break have been paid

CBC News ·
A Sudbury homeowner has been told she has to fork out money to repair her own lawn after a water main break. The flooding from a water main break went up to the red needles on the cedar trees. It will cost Anastasia Rioux $7,000 to level her lawn and fix the grass. (Olivia Stefanovich/CBC)

A Sudbury resident is doing battle with the city after a water main break destroyed her lawn.

Anastasia Rioux said insurance is covering everything, except her lawn. It will cost $7,000 to level the ground and fix the grass.

"When I originally landscaped this yard ... it cost me $10,000," she said.
Anastasia Rioux applied for compensation from the city to fix her yard, but was denied by its third party investigator. (Hilary Duff/CBC)

"Why should I have to fork out another $7,000 to fix it when I didn't cause this whole thing?"

Rioux applied for compensation from the city, but was denied by its third party investigator.

The person who handles municipal claims for Sudbury with the company Canadian Shield Adjusters said he doesn't know exactly what caused the water main break — only that it wasn't the city's fault, and workers responded in a reasonable time.
In February, Anastasia Rioux's property in Minnow Lake was flooded by a water main break. Five months later, she's still cleaning up. Most of the repairs are finished inside her home, but her lawn and yard still needs to be fixed. (Olivia Stefanovich/CBC)

"The municipality wasn't negligent," Cam Cottrell said. "They hadn't done anything wrong or failed to do anything."

The city said it received 32 claims for water main breaks between January and April, and confirms that none of those have been paid either.

Cottrell said water main break payments are rare, but they can happen.

"For instance, if the municipality was working in the area and, during the course of their work, if they were excavating near a water main and knocked the water main or broke the water main during the excavation, then the municipality would be exposed to liability, because that's negligence," he said.

Greater Sudbury water main break claims:

  • 2011 - 13 water main break claims
  • 2012 - 15 water main break claims
  • 2013 - 24 water main break claims
  • 2014 - 33 water main break claims

CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|About CBC News
Corrections and clarifications|Submit a news tip|

Related Stories