Sewer backup and drains in Saint-Léonard

Saint-Léonard was built almost in one block through the 1950s and 1960s: thousands of bungalows and small duplexes on narrow lots, on ground as flat as a table. That lack of natural slope is one reason the borough shows up regularly among the Montreal areas hit hardest by backups during heavy rain.

The original combined sewer still covers much of the territory, and the clay lateral drains laid when the houses went up are now more than sixty years old. Backwater valves and sump pumps with battery backup come up constantly in conversations with homeowners here.