Typical Montreal weather this summer.

Nothing like almost a month’s worth of overcast or rainy days to put a damper on underground exploring. Most days the precipitation never amounts to much, but the thread of a thunderstorm always seems to there on the horizon. I’ve been inside sewers and storm drains during showers in the past without running into any problems, but the weather’s been too unpredictable for me to want to try pushing my luck.

Hopefully the weather during August will be a bit more stable, but with more rain in the forecast over the rest of the week, it doesn’t appear as though things are going to be improving anytime soon.

In the meantime, here’s a selection of items found over the past few weeks which may be of some interest.

City needs to lead on water – or drown — An interesting little piece that talks a bit about the consequences of relying on a sewer system for drainage.

Montrealers Outraged After Sewage Flood — The type of story which seems to occur every summer in Montreal.

Transport Canada Blames Montreal for L’Acadie Circle Flood — I was able to see this area of Montreal flood over earlier last month during a particularly heavy rainstorm.  The claim by Transport Quebec’s spokesperson that the floods were caused by the 14-foot Meilleur Atlantique collector sewer reaching capacity seems a bit far-fetched. The problem likely lies with inadequate storm drainage connections leading into it.

Peeling Back Pavement to Expose Watery Havens — A great piece about “daylighting” buried waterways, in particular the Cheonggyecheon river in Seoul, Korea. A related NYT blog entry can be found here.

The Wetland Machines of Ayala — An example of one company that’s creating artificial wetlands to help treat wastewater in Israel.

Exboration.com — A new photoblog from Bryan of Toronto who’s been posting some top-notch underground photography.

Bresciaunderground.it — Amazing underground adventuring that’s been going on over the past few years in Northern Italy.