New Westminster residents impacted by February water main break still paying

Tempers are flaring for some residents in New Westminster nearly five months after a water main break badly damaged their building.

Repairs are still underway, and residents of 71 Jamieson Court will hold a special general meeting to discuss money Thursday night.

Some 1130 NewsRadio has spoken to say their contingency fund has run out, so now they’re being told to fork over money to help cover costs.

“Costs associated for services that do not directly address subsequent damage are subject to limits governed by the Extra Expense extension which carries a limit of $250,000.00. In addition, the Catch All Clause extension of coverage provides an additional $50,000.00 limit in the event the apportioned sub limits are not sufficient to address the expenses incurred. Combined, there is a limit of $300,000.00,” reads an internal insurance notice to residents shared with 1130 NewsRadio.

The night of the break is still fresh in the mind of Goran Bilandzija.

“I was stepping into the lobby, and there was a bunch of water, and I didn’t know what was going on. So, I looked outside, and it was like a river going down into the garage level and going down the street,” he tells 1130 NewsRadio.

One of his cars was in the underground parkade, it ended up being a complete write-off.

The other vehicle was parked on the street where he and his wife were trying to get to the morning of.

“We’re trying to manoeuvre ourselves around on the sidewalk, and there was some ice under the water, and sure enough, my wife slipped and fell. She injured herself and actually fell twice in the same spot because she tried to get up. And then I went to help her, and I fell. It was just a big mess.”

“We cannot go further without paying the bills. We’re basically stuck with this.”

Bilandzija, who lives on the 11th floor, claims hours after the break, there were no crews outside.

“Nobody, and this is like six hours into the flood. There were no emergency teams. There were no responders. Nobody that would divert this water so it wouldn’t be coming into the building. We’re talking about thousands and thousands of litres of water that came in. It’s just unheard of. I was more than shocked. I couldn’t believe this was happening. And then we were in a hotel for three weeks because there was no electricity. It’s just a big mess.”

He explains his anger stems from the slow response the night of the break, the lack of urgency being felt to help people since then, and now the cost — paying for something that wasn’t their fault.

“Of course, we’re frustrated because this was not done right, and we live in the 21st century, where you would think the response would be so much better than it was. None of this would have happened if somebody would have come out from the city first thing overnight and put up barriers so we wouldn’t get flooded.”

Bilandzija knows that the break didn’t happen on purpose, but says months later residents still don’t have full access to their amenities, one elevator still isn’t working properly, and the list of repairs isn’t getting any shorter.

“It’s a process. I understand it’s an accident; however, this accident, when it happened, it wasn’t handled right.”

He says tonight’s meeting will be a make or break for some residents, especially seniors.

“I’m sure they are tight with cash, as far as pensioners, so they have to come up with $3,000 or $4,000 out of their pocket in order for our building to pay some of the bills that are past due and some of the bills that are coming up. We depleted our contingency fund. We have zero money in our contingency fund, and [the meeting] is just to pay some bills up to August. The costs are absurd. If we don’t pass this, there are possibilities our building won’t be functional, and people will have to move out. We’re talking about, like, 200 suites. We cannot go further without paying the bills. We’re basically stuck with this.”

He’s disappointed neither Metro Vancouver, which is responsible for the pipe, nor the city has been helpful, in his opinion.

“You would think they would look at this and say, ‘OK, how can we help you in order for you guys to function normally?’ But we haven’t heard nothing from anybody. It’s definitely been quite a road,” explains Bilandzija, who thinks residents could be on the hook for a total of $800,000 to $900,000 to get through the next couple of months.

City Hall, Metro Vancouver responds

Mayor Patrick Johnstone tells 1130 NewsRadio city crews were “on site early,” and were trying to support the recovery, but says at the end of the day the repairs are not on the city.

“Fundamentally, they have repairs to do, and that’s not the city’s place to be involved in those repairs,” said Johnstone.

The mayor says he’s been in ongoing communication with the strata and is awaiting an invite to go and speak to residents. 1130 NewsRadio asked him if the invite is even needed.

“I also recognize I don’t want to get in the way of the work they want to do. So, I leave it to them for the invite.”

He says they’ve helped every way they can.

“Our building permit department has expedited any of the necessary permits they need and inspections they need so they can move as quickly as possible on their repairs. We’ve helped them address some of their parking issues around the area because they’ve lost access to their parkade, so we paused parking enforcement. They lost their recreation centre in the building, so we’ve provided free passes to our adjacent community centres.”

He believes the pause on parking has been lifted, but none of what’s been offered is going over very well with residents we’ve spoken to.

In response to the criticism that crews weren’t there fast enough, Johnstone says it’s “Metro Vancouver’s pipe to respond to.”

He adds that city crews don’t have access to their system to do any potential repairs.

“I understand it took some time to close off the pipe and stop the water flow.”

Bilandzija, like many others, has filed claims with both Metro Vancouver and the city — both say they are still being processed.

“On the city side, I know we are receiving those claims, we’re processing them, and we are going to wait until the [repairs] are completed until we can come to a conversation with them about how to deal with the claims. I think the numbers and the claims have to be clear before we know what the claims actually are,” says Johnstone, who doesn’t have a timeline for any of this.

Meanwhile, Metro Vancouver says the cause of the water main break is still under investigation, adding the damaged section of the pipe was repaired and back in service three weeks after the incident.

The water main break happened around midnight, and the regional agency says crews were at the building by 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 14.

“Staff immediately began planning the isolation strategy in conjunction with New Westminster staff. Isolation began at 4 a.m. Isolation involves manually and remotely operating valves from both Metro Vancouver and New Westminster’s systems. The isolation valves for the leaking main were closed around 8 a.m. and the main was fully isolated around 11:30 a.m.,” the district says in a statement to 1130 NewsRadio.

It adds it was a 36-inch pipe and typically delivers 32 million litres of drinking water to almost 100,000 every day, and it can’t say how much water leaked that night.

A potential class-action lawsuit against both the city and Metro Vancouver is said to still be in the works. Both the mayor and Metro Vancouver declined to comment on that.