How Montreal hopes to better manage its rainwater with parks that act as sponges
Verity Stevenson, Kwabena Oduro | CBC News | Posted: September 9, 2023 8:00 AM | Last Updated: September 9, 2023
Dickie Moore Park in Park Ex is among the city's 6 'resilient' parks, with more on the way
A light rain has fallen and the pavement around Dickie Moore Park on Beaumont Avenue in Montreal is still wet Friday morning, but three small groups of toddlers wearing bright orange bibs have ambled down the road into the park and onto its wooden play structures.
"When it rains, we usually come here with the kids because the wood chips absorb the water," says Valbona Shkambi, a daycare educator.
Her colleague, Yuko Kobayashi, explains that there is a another park nearby that they often visit but the ground under its play structures is covered in sand, which makes for a mess on any day — but especially after a rainfall.
"It's safer here, too, when they fall. It's better," Kobayashi says.
The park at the corner of Beaumont and de l'Épée avenues — inaugurated last fall in honour of Moore, a six-time Stanley Cup winner and Montreal Canadiens legend — wasn't only an addition of green space in the densely populated Parc-Extension neighbourhood, it's also what the city is calling a "sponge park."
The plan is to create these parks all over the city over the next few years to absorb the increasing amount of rainwater due to climate change. Already in recent years, Montreal has had issues managing abundant rainfall overwhelming its sewer system and often ending up, mostly unfiltered, in the St. Lawrence River — or people's basements.
Dickie Moore is one of six parks the city has already created or revamped to be "resilient." Another in Lachine, Brewster Park, is on its way, as well as a water retention pond coming to Pointe-Saint-Charles in the fall.
The park in Park Ex is almost entirely covered by wild flower gardens designed to please pollinators and other insects. The splash pad at the centre of the park has been strategically placed next to a bed of rocks surrounded by plants and flowers acting as a drain. A wooden walkway hovers above it.
The goal is to mimic natural hydrological processes, explains Sophie Bérard, an engineer in the city's water department.
"You try to return the water to the nature instead of putting it in sewers and grey infrastructure," such as roadways, Bérard says.
The park also acts as a reprieve on hot days, its greenery cooling the area's temperature and the splash pad an immediate way to beat the heat.
WATCH | A city of Montreal engineer explains how this park is about more than play:
Chloé Fredette, a project manager for Québec Vert, an advocacy group for more green infrastructure, says that though the parks are a step in the right direction, Montreal has a lot of catching up to do.
"Every park should be a sponge park," Fredette said. "It's a great start, but we can do much more. The drainage system, how it's built right now, is not sustainable for really big storm water events."
For Shkambi and Kuboyashi, though, the park is a welcome addition to their workday. At lunchtime, the tables in the park also fill up with nearby office workers.
"It's clean, it's comfortable, it's quiet. We love it," Shkambi says, adding the colourful mural adorning the two buildings lining the park is another nice feature.