8 | City of Lacombe
frastructure Matt Goudy explains that in
2011, Lacombe endured a rare onslaught
from major storm systems which led to
widespread flooding. The city’s storm
water management infrastructure simply
couldn’t keep pace with the extensive run-
off and numerous residents suffered in the
process. To determine means of overcom-
ing these problems, MacQuarrie says the
city began with a series of public meet-
ing, a process that prompted another kind
of flood in terms of expressions of frus-
tration. “Residents came to us in a pub-
lic meeting and they vented ... they were
very angry, but they told us exactly how
the water was impacting them, and we
were able to take this information to engi-
neers, so they could better understand the
problems and build solutions into a new
storm water model,” says MacQuarrie.
Goudy explains that a site specific ap-
proach was deployed, which included lay-
ing of new, larger piping systems directly
beside the old pipe, which remained in
service to prevent further injury to resi-
dents already impacted. When the new
system was finally installed, it was com-
bined to the old through a network of cross
connections, dramatically increasing the
capacity of the overall system. “We’ve
