New Sudbury, Flour Mill area serves as floodplain for Junction Creek

It's been a wet week for people who live in homes or have businesses that border the Ponderosa area of Sudbury.

That's the name for the large marshland that's generally between Lasalle Boulevard and Notre Dame Avenue that serves as the floodplain for Junction Creek.

While this is an especially bad spring, there is some degree of flooding there every year.

Paul Sajatovic, the general manager of Conservation Sudbury, said there was a lot of pressure in years past to allow development in the area.

"Sometimes there are decisions that are taken that try to balance for the good of the community growth, as well as trying to protect the natural environment."

In the early 2000s, Sudbury city council considered multi-million-dollar plans to build holding ponds in the area, but they never went ahead.

Sajatovic said there are no imminent plans to change water flows in the area, even though "there are always opportunities, methods and techniques that can be explored."

That could include retrofitting the businesses most affected by flooding along Notre Dame, most of which were built in the 1970s and 1980s and would likely be designed differently if built today, he said.