In less than two months a major policy change will take effect which will impact developers and contractors of large underground sites in the City of Toronto. Announced on the City’s website on Monday, November 1st, the Foundation Drainage Policy and Guidelines for all new development applications received by the City of Toronto under the Ontario Planning Act, except for Committee of Adjustment applications, will take effect on January 1st, 2022.

Foundation drainage is the collection of water around the foundation of a building or structure from infiltrated stormwater and/or groundwater. The Foundation Drainage Policy was developed to preserve sewer capacity in the City’s sewer systems and to sustain future development growth through managing foundation drainage on-site rather than discharging to the City’s sewers, already under great pressure due to the pace of development in Toronto.

Water level monitoring on construction site, image courtesy of GEMS

This will have a major impact on new development applications. In an increasingly vertical Toronto, in order to go up, you first have to go down and with the city now entering rarified air with Supertall buildings, sometimes you have to go way down. With one underground parking level approximately three metres in height and some buildings having as many as six underground levels, not to mention any underground retail, developers are digging deeper and deeper, with underground water appearing as high as one metre below the ground's surface.

“It impacts everyone as anyone planning to build underground will have to understand these new regulations,” says Laura Maharaj, Hydrogeologist with GEMS, or Groundwater Environmental Management Services, environment specialists for the construction industry in assisting developers and contractors to obtain their studies and permits for construction."Developers should be aware of this and it might be worth having conversations with the City on how to transition development plans and designs for the projects that cannot submit applications this year."

The major change of this new policy is that foundations that intersect the groundwater will not be allowed to discharge to the sewers long-term. As the groundwater level is high in Toronto, developers will have to look for alternate methods to manage foundation drainage on-site.

“They’ve wanted to change this policy for a long time and it's finally happening,” says Maharaj. “Sewers were built for an ‘X’ amount of people and buildings, and they are now really pressed and at capacity. We need sanitary sewers to service the daily water usage from all of these large buildings being built, to keep the population growing and to keep the sustainability of development in Toronto happening.”

Drilling and well installations in an underground parking lot, image courtesy of GEMS

GEMS is a developers’ eyes and ears on the ground, or most importantly, underneath it. As groundwater environmental experts, GEMS completes Hydrogeological Reports and are hired by developers and contractors to be on-site completing environmental monitoring, inspections, and soil and water sampling, to ensure that developers are adhering to permits and regulations. It will now be more important than ever to have Hydrogeological Reports completed at the early stages of a project.

They have lent their expertise to some extremely high profile Toronto developments in recent years including HinesCIBC Square where GEMS worked with Hines to secure the groundwater permits and expedited the approval of the building permits for the start of construction and Cadillac Fairview’s 16 York Street, where they obtained an emergency short-term discharge agreement for unexpected excess water during construction of the PATH tunnel, and where they continue to complete the ongoing annual discharge compliance monitoring. They also worked on Tridel’s Auberge On The Park condominiums on Leslie Street by completing the Hydrogeological Investigation and Reporting. GEMS drilled wells on-site, completed water quality sampling, pumping tests, and secured the Groundwater Permits on behalf of Tridel.

Tridel's Auberge On The Park, image courtesy of Tridel

“We have very close relationships with regulators and governments and have a good line of site on changing requirements and regulations,” says Maharaj. “We bridge the gap between onsite work and authorities by providing practical and attainable solutions for our clients while working with the authorities in order to keep construction moving forward.”

The new Foundation Drainage Policy becoming effective January 1st in the City of Toronto leaves developers with a few options in their development and building plans according to GEMS: design a water-tight underground structure such that no private water will collect in the building; if there is an available storm sewer, install a filtration system to treat the private water and have it discharged to the storm sewer or re-use the private water onsite.

It is worth noting that water-tight structures have very high associated costs for the developer and while cheaper, filtration systems can take up space and impact that most valuable underground commodity — parking spaces. 

Other municipalities across Canada will be watching these foundation drainage changes in Toronto very closely. “Toronto is unique in its growth and our sewer system was built for an older and smaller Toronto,” says Mike Francis, also a Hydrogeologist with GEMS. “Vaughan, Mississauga, York Region, The Region of Peel, and Burlington are looking at what is happening and starting to adjust their policies as a result. Toronto is the flagship program and other large cities across Canada will be looking to see what happens as a result of this change of policy.”

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