Stormwater management facilities

You might know them as community ponds, but they are actually working stormwater management facilities and they aren’t safe for any type of recreation including sledding, skating and walking.

• Ice thickness is unpredictable because there are working pipes that keep water continuously flowing beneath the frozen top layer.
• Ice depth varies across the whole surface. It might appear thick in some areas, while other areas may have very thin or no ice.
• It’s difficult to see unsafe ice conditions from the surface.
• Snow may be covering ice hazards.
• Water continuously flows beneath the surface, reducing ice integrity.

Stormwater management facilities play a big role in keeping neighbourhoods safe from flooding. They are built to catch excess water runoff from heavy storms and snowmelt. This water enters stormwater facilities from catch basins on the street and through natural surface drainage.

These facilities also improve the quality of stormwater that ends up in our rivers and creeks. Many aspects of a stormwater facility are constructed to filter the water. This includes the vegetation planted around the water as well as the way the water and sediment moves and settles in the facility.

While stormwater facilities might look calm and serene, there’s a lot going on underneath the surface. Water is constantly moving as it enters and exits the facilities through pipes.

While the constant water movement is good for stormwater management, it creates unsafe conditions for recreational activities like skating and sledding in the winter, or boating and swimming in the summer.