Christine emailed the following: I am writing to ask if you could give me an update on what is being done about the storm water management around my property. Spring is coming soon and we inevitably get hit with a lot of rain and runoff.
Rick Alexander forwarded the following email: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Rick Rhodenbaugh <rjradman@sbcglobal.net> Date: Tue, Mar 18, 2014 at 11:36 AM Subject: Storm drain issues To: engineering@bloomington.in.gov I recently moved to Bloomington, 1101 W. Yellowwood Ct. There is a city storm drain that dumps a river of water from the south side of my property all the way the way to the other end, then continues into the neighbors yard. As you can see in the attached photos, this is causing a great deal of soil erosion, property damage and negatively affecting the value of my home. When I purchased the home, I was told there were no issues with water. But I am now told by neighbors the previous owners spent a lot of time and money trying to repair the damage. I do not have the time or the money to throw at what seems like a city issue. Please let me know how we can resolve this. Thank you, Rick. Rhodenbaugh
I received this email from Rachel Atz while I was on vacation: "I just spoke with a lady about our dead-end flushing program and she also included that she is having some issues with drainage behind her house and wanted to talk to someone about what she could do to improve it. She said she was willing to pay for it to be fixed, but didn't know what the best solution would be or if she even owned the property/was responsible for it. I told her I would pass the information on to our engineering department and someone would call her to discuss further. Unfortunately, I did not get her name. Her address is 4629 E. Donnington and her phone number is 812-334-4112. Thanks, Rachel"
Dear Mr. Howard, Mr. Peden, Mr. Meyers, and Mr. Rollo, We are the property-owners at 2017 E Marilyn Dr. abutting Mr. Howard’s residential construction project at 1110 S. Covenanter Dr (http://howardshomeimprovement.com). We're writing because we're concerned about the addition of gravel this past week to Mr. Howard’s lot, raising it several feet above our property, creating what looks sure to become a pond of run-off water along the eastern edge of our property and causing likely flooding at the southern edge. A marshy meadow that used to collect water on Mr. Howard’s property has been shifted onto our property. In order to get a sense of the impacts and the city’s review of them, we are hoping to talk with Mr. Howard and a city inspector before further work proceeds. We are also concerned that the property line has not been staked and our property is being used for construction staging, with considerable removal of vegetation and possible spreading of gravel across the property line. Here is a rough calculation of the drainage runoff from Mr. Howard’s property onto ours: The raised area is 30’+60’+10’=100' X 12’ = 1200 sq ft (at the side) and 22’ + 12’ = 34’ X 10’ = 340’ sq ft (at the back) = 1540 sq ft (total). At an average 5” rainfall in May, that would create 4,800 gallons or 640 cu ft of runoff. Annually, rainfall is about 50” so the runoff would be about 48,000 gallons or 6400 cu ft per year. But with climate change we suspect those amounts are going to increase (rainfall for every month this year has exceeded the norm). We arrived at this estimate using the USGS rainfall calculator: https://water.usgs.gov/edu/activity-howmuchrain.html And we used rainfall estimates from: https://www.weather.gov/ind/Precip_scorecard_IND For the raised area of Mr Howard’s property, we used the schematics attached below. We also have attached photographs showing the construction staging on our property, and the effect of the land build-ups on the east side of our property line. Thank you for your help, Ben and Jenny Robinson
I have a problem on my property with drainage. The drainage of my property runs off naturally into my neighbor's yard. His address is 3514 Morningside Drive. When a storm comes, his back yard pools and remains there for a few days until it is absorbed into the ground. I discussed with one of the neighbors how this might be resolved and volunteered to help pay for pipes that would carry the water that pools in their yard to the ditch along Morningside Drive. The neighbor didn't think that would work. Now they have dug out a deeper hole in their yard and are installing a "Sponge Garden." My understanding is that this will retain water and will not allow my yard to drain. This area has backed up into my basement in the past and flooded it. It seems to me that this will occur more easily with the installment of the "Sponge Garden." I appeal to the city of Bloomington to send engineers to come and see if there is some way that water can be drained into the ditch along Morningside Drive.