Stormwater a challenge
Storm water study still months away - December 2, 1998
By Ryan Teague Beckwith - Daily World Writer, The Aberdeen Daily World ,
Just after noon Tuesday, workers at the Solan & Solan law offices broke out the sandbags.
"It's happened twice this week," grumbled legal assistant Michelle Carlin.
It's beginning to look a lot like December - and the torrential rains have been accompanied by the standard bout of flooding for downtown Aberdeen.
At the corner of West Heron and "Lake M Street" ("that's what we call it when it's like this," Carlin says), the biggest problem was the wake left behind by motorists driving too fast down the street.
But other areas of town saw gurgling storm drains and foot-and-a-half deep puddles that were as much a nuisance as they were a reminder that Aberdeen's lifelong drainage problems are far from solved.
In November, voters overwhelmingly approved a comprehensive $320,000 study of the ailing storm water system. The study will give the city an overview of what the problems are and how to fix them.
Mike Myers, head of the city sewer department, said the study should take about a year to complete. Even then, the city will still need to find the money for whatever projects the plan recommends. That means it could be at least two years before the storm water problem is truly addressed.
Still, not all the news was bad. Myers stressed that the city has not had to dump raw sewage into Grays Harbor because of storm water overflow since the New Year's Eve storm of 1996. "We've required people to remove storm water (drains) from their yard that were emptying into sanitary sewers," he said.
The sewer department has also worked on the pipelines themselves, cutting down on the number of holes that allow groundwater to seep into the system during periods of heavy rainfall.
City officials blamed Tuesday's flooded streets on an unlucky combination of high tide and a strong west wind that kept water from receding.
Because of the weather, the tide was nearly two feet above the level it was supposed to be.
"The problem is when it is high tide, our tidegate closes," said the city's community development specialist, Rich Brinkman. "That doesn't allow high tide water to come in, but it also doesn't allow water in the city to drain out."
The South Side, which still boasts classic two-story homes with oversized flood basements, did not suffer from flooding as seriously as it has in the past, thanks to a new dike along the Chehalis River.
"There are some points in South Aberdeen that probably would have had a problem (in the past) that did not," said the city's interim Public Works director, Ron Merila.
Near downtown, the problems were the same as ever.
Troy Biggs, manager of Napa Auto Parts on West Wishkah Street, said water started backing up along the storefront around 9:30 a.m. By noon, the parking lot was under six inches of water.
"We probably lost $1,000 worth of business because customers couldn't get in," he said.
Merila said the flooding hit many familiar spots across town.
"I think this is pretty typical flooding under the kinds of circumstances that we're seeing today," he said. "You just simply have too much rain for the runoff to be able to get out through the systems."
Not everyone thought the flooding was a problem.
Fourteen-year-old John Pike took to the streets on a mountain bike he got for his birthday. "It's rained before, but this time it's puddling up so well I thought I'd give it a try," he said.
Down the street, Heather Lusso, a field representative for ADS Environmental Services, stood on the corner of North J and West Fourth streets, clutching a red umbrella as she took photographs of the flooded streets.
"This is amazing," said the San Jose resident, who has been in Grays Harbor studying the city's pipes for the sewer department since mid-October. After several months of study, Lusso said she has learned one important thing: "That I really don't want to live in Washington."
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