Regina residents eager to see remnants of winter go down the drain

With spring fast approaching, there are lots of things people can do to ensure their home is flood-free and ready for the change in seasons.

Retiree Will Chabun has been a Whitmore Park resident since 1985.

Will Chabun adds on to a mountain of snow in March, 2022. (Logan Stein/980 CJME)

He says people in the neighbourhood take this time of year seriously when it comes to tackling heaps of snow and giant puddles.

Chabun says they have no other choice.

“Oldtimers have told me that the area south of here was a marsh, while others have said there didn’t use to be any problem until the bypass was built in the 1950s,” Chabun said. “So who knows? But we do we take it pretty seriously.”

Residents taking it seriously is an understatement.

It wasn’t an uncommon sight to see people in the neighbourhood shovelling the snow as far away from their home as possible, with some people like Chabun taking an extra approach to ensure their basements remain dry.

“We try and get rid of snow on all four sides of our house (and) get it as far away as possible from the foundation,” he said. “We’ve cut a notch in the lawn, a channel in the lawn. Experience has taught us this will melt first and then carry the rest of the melting snow off into the drain.”

Roughly 90 centimetres (or 35 inches) of snow has fallen in Regina this winter, around 30 cm more than the five-year average.

That gives people throughout the city more work to do as they prepare for spring.

Murray Webb is also a Whitmore Park resident. He prioritizes making sure there isn’t a buildup of snow around his home this time of year.

“This is the most snow we’ve seen since we moved into the neighbourhood,” Webb claimed. “It certainly makes me feel like I have to stay on top of it.

“Basically, (I) spend a little bit of time after work every day when the snow is soft to kind of chip away and just make sure all the water has got a chance to run away.”

Slush covers a street in the Whitmore Park neighbourhood. (Logan Stein/980 CJME)

The idea of pushing slush six feet away is an important one for Webb, based on some of his previous experiences.

“We dealt with some seepage in 2016,” he said. “We had to take our deck off and regrade the whole backyard so that the water would flow away with the slope.”

Webb doesn’t want to deal with that sort of work again.

As a result, Webb and some of his neighbours go around the area making sure water has easy access to flow through the storm drains.

He acknowledges some people might not be able to clear them, adding it feels good to be able to help out some people who might not be able to do the work on their own.

“We know which houses might not be on top of that and we make sure that they’re clean and ready to accept the water drains,” Webb said.

When 980 CJME began working on this story, dozens of people came forward with their tales of problems involving water seepage in their neighbourhoods as a result of spring melt.

The City of Regina addressed this issue on Tuesday, offering some advice for people looking to avoid damage to their home:

• Test sump pumps and backflow prevention valves to ensure they are working properly. If you do not have either of these, consider installing them.
• Remove items that are blocking the water drainage pathway to the basement floor drain.
• Store valuables in watertight containers or raise them off the basement floor.
• Store hazardous materials in watertight containers or remove them from the basement.
• Raise electronics off the basement floor.

As for outside the home, the city said to:

• Clear snow at least six feet away from the foundation.
• Extend all downspouts and sump pump hoses at least six feet away from the foundation.
• Remove any debris or snow from any window wells.
• Clear snow, ice and debris from neighbourhood storm drains.