Sudbury resident wants city to pay for lawn repairs after flood

A Sudbury resident is doing battle with the city after a water main break destroyed her lawn.

Anastasia Rioux said insurance is covering everything, except her lawn. It will cost $7,000 to level the ground and fix the grass.

"When I originally landscaped this yard ... it cost me $10,000," she said.

"Why should I have to fork out another $7,000 to fix it when I didn't cause this whole thing?"

Rioux applied for compensation from the city, but was denied by its third party investigator.

The person who handles municipal claims for Sudbury with the company Canadian Shield Adjusters said he doesn't know exactly what caused the water main break only that it wasn't the city's fault, and workers responded in a reasonable time.

"The municipality wasn't negligent," Cam Cottrell said. "They hadn't done anything wrong or failed to do anything."

The city said it received 32 claims for water main breaks between January and April, and confirms that none of those have been paid either.

Cottrell said water main break payments are rare, but they can happen.

"For instance, if the municipality was working in the area and, during the course of their work, if they were excavating near a water main and knocked the water main or broke the water main during the excavation, then the municipality would be exposed to liability, because that's negligence," he said.

Greater Sudbury water main break claims:

• 2011 - 13 water main break claims
• 2012 - 15 water main break claims
• 2013 - 24 water main break claims
• 2014 - 33 water main break claims