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City sees progress on storm-water issues
(by Sue Reid - August 27, 2009)
City sees progress on storm-water issues
By SUE REID
Although dealing with storm-water issues on private property is difficult, the city will see the benefits of working through them, Public Works Director James S. Stanek told Solon City Council.
He said his department is making progress with dye testing for homes in the "ABC" streets. That area experienced the highest level of inflow and infiltration based on the flow monitoring the city conducted. This work is part of the aftermath of the storm of June 2006, where 1,000 basements were flooded.
"We did a yearlong flow-monitoring study immediately after the storm and we looked at which areas were most affected by rainfall events, and that's where we focused our efforts," Mr. Stanek said. "Based on how much rainwater got into the system, we determined which areas had the biggest problems."
Mr. Stanek said the testing being done on the ABC streets is all part of the city's storm-water management plan, which will take 10 years minimum to complete. That does not include work that needs to be done in the industrial and commercial property because they are experiencing issues as well, Mr. Stanek said.
"This is one of the biggest components of the program," Mr. Stanek said of the elimination of inflow and infiltration from all sources. "It's a long process."
For years, Mr. Stanek said, the city tried to figure out ways to solve this problem, but was getting nowhere. "We came to understand that we needed to address these issues," he said. Reports from 30 years ago showed the city doing the same things, with regards to dye testing, smoke testing and televising all of it.
"Even back then, there was a lot of infiltration and inflow," he said. At the time, the city realized it was coming from private property.
Work his department is completing on a daily basis represents the first time the city has identified issues on private property and had people correct them, Mr. Stanek said.
The work is done at the resident's cost, he said. In some cases, remedying issues is as simple as disconnecting the downspouts, and other times minor re-plumbing needs to be done. Some work, though, requires major re-plumbing, he said.
"We try to give the residents as much direction as we can as to what the problem is and where it's located," Mr. Stanek said. Residents are given as much information as possible prior to hiring a plumber or contractor. "That way they don't get taken advantage of," he said.
He said that, in some cases, residents are amicable to what work needs to be done. "It has the potential to cost them money," Mr. Stanek said, but that has to be enforced according to city ordinance.
"You can't have a cross connection of storm water into the sanitary sewer system or vice versa," he said.
Last week, his department conducted smoke testing in the Preserve subdivision, off of Pettibone and Liberty roads, which is the "quick and dirty way of seeing if there is any cross connection," Mr. Stanek said. "That will be the first indicator that there is a problem, then we'll seek permission to dye test on private property, which will identify exactly where the source of the problem is."
Mr. Stanek said that, in the past, the city contracted all the smoke and dye testing, and it cost thousands of dollars.
"We made a commitment about three years ago to learn how to do that ourselves," he said. "It's quicker for us to make a decision to go in and do that, and it's a lot less expensive."
Mr. Stanek also told council that his department has received 18 calls this year related to flooded basements, yards or some kind of water issue. In past years, the department would get that many calls in a day, he said.
"When we would get an inch of rain in an hour, we'd have in the neighborhood of 20 sewer calls a day," Mr. Stanek said. He said his department has worked to educate the public on performing regular preventative maintenance.
"I think we're doing a better job of keeping the mains clean because we've been in the mains in the last few years," Mr. Stanek said. "We've eliminated some of the storm-water issues that can impact on the sanitary system, when the storm water can't go where it needs to go." He said it travels in the ground to where it can get into the sanitary sewers. An example of this is through manhole covers.
"Overland flooding is a big issue for us, if we can control that, we can control a lot of the inflow issues," Mr. Stanek said.
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