Belleville, Ontario Floodwaters Subside, Nearby Towns Still on Alert

Residents of Belleville’s northern region are preparing for cleanup as the waters surrounding their homes continues to recede.

“As long as the weather cooperates we will see a continued drop in the water levels,” said Terry Murphy with Quinte Conservation this morning.

He said while river systems in the region like the Moira remain high its difficult to estimate when things will get back to normal.

With waters finally receding and flows easing, it appears the worst of flooding on the Moira River is over, says the general manager for Quinte Conservation.
One week after Quinte Conservation issued its first flood warning, the water levels have peaked and are beginning to slowly recede. Flood conditions will remain for several more days, but Terry Murphy said the authority is confident the levels have crested.
"Everything is dropping. The water flow is dropping and the actual water levels are dropping too," he said Wednesday afternoon.

Public health is warning people with drilled wells to be extra vigilant at this time of year.
While this area of the province has escaped the worst of the spring flooding that has inundated homes and septic beds in places like Belleville and Peterborough and sparked boil-water orders as a result, Dave Cooke, a public health inspector with the KFL&A Public Health, warns that people on well water should still be alert to any change in its smell or appearance as a result of the spring melt.
High local water levels can cause surface contamination and potentially dangerous levels of bacteria in drinking water, but public health offers free testing for residents to determine if there is anything dangerous in their water, and can offer help with disinfection if it is necessary.
“We find that spring is a time when a lot of people test their wells anyway, just as a precaution,” he said.

Catherine Serré usually has to walk 35 feet and go down two sets of steps from her Glen Ross cottage before she reaches the shoreline of the Trent River.
However, as flooding continues on the river, she now only has to step down from her deck to be shin deep in the river.
"Now our cottage is sinking on one side," Serré said, as the lattice attached to the bottom of her cottage began to buckle.
In the summer of 2006, Serré and her family had the cottage raised 20 inches off the ground.