Published: July 16, 2009 01:43 pm      

New Albany officials still trying to find flooding solution

A federal mandate to close off overflow valves at the Grant Line Road lift station led to sewage backups in homes along Woodfield Drive last month, New Albany officials said Wednesday.

As part of past stipulations rendered by the Environmental Protection Agency, overflow pipes that led sewage to creeks when capacity levels had been met were ordered to be filled according to Wes Christmas, engineer for the city-hired firm Clark-Dietz.

The change was to prevent sewage from being dumped into watersheds, as New Albany has been penalized for sewer problems in the past.

An intense rainfall such as the one on June 26 can push sewage beyond capacity levels and with nowhere else to go, the wastewater ends up coming back through toilets now that the pipes have been shutdown, Christmas said during a special meeting of the New Albany City Council.

No official action was taken during the workshop.

While stormwater flows through separate pipes, the aged clay sewer lines are subject to infiltration during a heavy rain event, Christmas said. The possibility that some property owners are still hooking stormwater and sewer lines together can also lead to overflow issues.

“That amount of rainfall put it over its capacity and without the overflow [valve], it backed up,” Christmas said.

What surprised many of the residents that attended the meeting is there’s not much the city can do about the size of the lift station. Christmas said it’s designed to handle a five-year rain, meaning a rain event that only happens every five years.

He said the rainfall was greater than a five-year storm, and designing a station to withstand storms of that magnitude would be an expensive proposition.

“I would make sure I had a backflow preventer in place,” Christmas told the residents at the meeting.

A backflow preventer in most cases requires the homeowner to manually turn a key that connects to the sewage line in the ground, keeping waste water from entering or leaving the pipes.

They are supposed to be activated during a heavy rainfall.

But the key can be several feet long and cumbersome. At a council meeting last week, a lady said there’s no way her 90-year-old mother that lives on Woodfield Drive could turn the key by herself.

Additionally, Christmas acknowledged that one resident blocking sewage from entering their lines would effectively send the wastewater through their neighbor’s pipes unless they also have a preventer.

As for people illegally tying sewer and stormwater lines together, Council President Dan Coffey said the city has paid millions to televise lines to make sure that was no longer a problem.

Christmas said he didn’t know of any specific examples, but added it’s always a possibility.

The meeting lasted nearly two hours with members of the Stormwater and Sewer boards giving their take on what it will take to solve flooding in general. The common theme was needing more money, as Ron Carroll, chairman of both boards said there’s just not enough to tackle all needed projects.

He said stormwater is in the most dire situation.

“If I have to set the priority between stormwater and sewer, it would have to be stormwater,” Carroll said, as he suggested a slight increase of about $2 a month per household in stormwater fees each year. The utility currently gets $38 per household a year.

“What I’ve heard from the people is we don’t mind the increase if you do something about it,” Carroll said.

But the council has yet to give a timeline on when any sort of utility rate increase could be voted on. Councilman Bob Caesar offered a temporary solution — hiring 10 part-time workers to clear creeks in the city.

Utilities Director Brad Kessans said there are scores of blocked waterways that are part of the flooding problem. While stormwater has 10 employees assigned to it, Kessans said their role has become reactionary with all the complaints and problems.

Caesar believes 10 part-time employees working a six-week shift could make a difference.

“At least they could clean out these creeks,” he said.

The council could hold a special meeting by the end of the month to vote on hiring part-time help using riverboat funds, Coffey said.

Councilman Steve Price picked up on a topic he started last week, questioning how much development plays a role in the recent rash of flooding. Some of the residents in attendance agreed with his assertion.

One couple that live near Green Valley Road said flooding was never an issue for them until the past few years. As more asphalt was laid down, the problems mounted, they said.

Christmas said by city ordinance, developments more than an acre in size must show in their designs that runoff water will flow at a rate of at least the same level as before the project.

But Price — who has served on the Plan Commission — said there’s not enough accountability to ensure runoff from developments doesn’t become a problem after a development is completed.

Deputy Mayor Carl Malysz said that is the job of the city engineer and added that until Tim Marinaro was hired about a year ago, New Albany didn’t have a full-time engineer.

Coffey suggested that like sewer credits, the city should adopt a plan for stormwater credits. He said that could give officials a better grasp on runoff water.