Stormwater Management Master Plan for the Town of Stony Plain

The Town of Stony Plain will be updating their 2008 Stormwater Management Master Plan, in order to conduct a vulnerability assessment to characterize and prioritize potential climate change risks that could impact the stormwater management system. The Stormwater Management Master Plan will define the existing stormwater system capacity in order to catalogue possible upgrades to the system and to review the system’s operational strategies. An engineering vulnerability assessment will be conducted, drawing on guidance from the Engineers Canada Public Infrastructure Engineering Vulnerability Committee (PIEVC), to assess the climate change risks posed to the stormwater system.Expected intense rainfall events in central Alberta are expected to become more frequent because of climate change. An updated Stormwater Management Master Plan will provide the Town with recommendations and strategies in preventing the storm water system from being overwhelmed resulting in localized flooding. This will protect town assets and the natural environment from damage due to flooding, and this will benefit the Town and other stakeholders in the Town of Stony of Stony plain including private businesses and private property owners. The Town seeks to ensure the development of an on-line system of storm water management facilities that not only manages flows (mitigating, as possible, property damages), but, also provides suitable filtration and sedimentation to ensure that receiving water bodies are less impacted by pollution from storm sources. The plan will draw on guidance on climate from the Engineers Canada Public Infrastructure Engineering Vulnerability Committee protocol for climate change adaptation and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Stormwater Management Planning Guide. Climate change risks within the Stormwater Master Plan will be assessed using a structured risk assessment methodology which will include three key steps: 1) Identifying how projected future climate or environmental changes could impact the Town of Stony Plain’s stormwater management; 2) Assign a score to each identified impact based on local perceptions of the magnitude of potential consequences and the likelihood of those consequences occurring; 3) Review the prioritization of potential impacts and identify priorities for action planning. Workshops with Town staff and other local stakeholders will be conducted to identify, assess and evaluate storm water climate-related risks facing the Town of Stony Plain over the next several decades. These stakeholders will include town staff representing the Town of Stony Plain, Members of the Big Lake Drainage Area, Alberta Ministry of Environment and Parks, Capital Region Parkland Water Services Commission, EPCOR (Edmonton owned utility that provides water), local developers, local environmental organizations and engineering consulting firms. Included in the plan will be a scheduled internal review to monitor the results to determine if planned actions have been implemented and what were the project successes or barriers encountered.