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Updated: 1:08 AM Aug 24, 2010
Storm Drain Study Gives Tips for Fighting Floods
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection met with various city leaders, including those from Huntington, Charleston and St. Albans, to discuss simple solutions citizens can make to help keep their basements from leaking -- and cities from going underwater.
Posted: 11:04 PM Aug 23, 2010Reporter: Hanna Francis Email Address: hanna.francis@wsaz.com |
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2 Comments 
CABELL COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- For old cities with old pipes, when it rains it doesn't pour. It floods.
Replacing pipe systems can cost millions -- and these days that’s cash flow many cities don't have. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection met with various city leaders, including those from Huntington, Charleston and St. Albans, to discuss simple solutions citizens can make to help keep their basements from leaking -- and cities from going underwater.
"Trying to retroact, go back and separate systems can be very expensive; the goal is to figure out a way to minimize cost," Joe Battiata with the Center for Water Protection said. "We have polluted runoff, flooding problems -- we have to make the public realize there's a problem."
Battiata says for the average person, pitching in to fix the problem can be as simple as checking the drain pipe from your gutters. If it's feeding into the sewer system, it's adding water that will come back up when those big rains hit. It's potential flash flooding material. He says your gutter should be draining out into your yard or driveway.
In the city of Kenova, residents are asked to make sure their gutters don't go into the sewer. If they do, the residents must pay a surcharge to the water company. That's partially because of the flooding issues, and partially because that's just more water treatment plants have to work with.
The DEP also suggests minimizing the use of asphalt. A return to the past is what they call it. Sixty years ago, streets were only 18 feet wide -- now they're 35 in many places. Asphalt driveways and streets, opposed to gravel, stop mother nature from doing her job.
"When the rain falls into parking lots it doesn't soak in, it flows into streams," Sherry Wilkins with the DEP said. "Mitigating runoff into our streams, lakes and rivers allows them to soak into the ground instead of runoff."
In Huntington one problem that presents itself every time the rain falls: viaduct flooding. Huntington Public Works Director Kit Anderson said that problem can't be fixed completely until property issues are worked out with CSX and more money is obtained.
"It's hard to come up with any way to solve the problem when we have the fiscal constraints that we do," Anderson said.
Anderson said the City has already requested quotes for prices on lights and gates to keep people from driving under the viaducts when they're flooded.
Huntington City Council member Mark Bates will chair a Stormwater Committee beginning this fall to address the growing problem in the city. The committee's first meeting is scheduled for September 14.
Latest Comments
So we have had this problem for years and years and guess what, Bates and Randolph and Wolfe are going to try and impose another fee or tax on us to get this problem resolved! Or they are going to make us homeowners spend our hard earned money to help them out. When are we going to say enough is enough! Stop this madness. Guarantee you that when election time comes I'll remember these names and I hope everyone else in this city does! Get these people out of here before they take every last dime we have. Also we need to get ahold of the people in Charleston who are in charge of this Home Rule stuff and give them a piece of our mind as well. We need to tell them to stop Huntington from taking away our hard earned money because do to you see anything that has been done with our "user fee"? I didn't think so!
After seeing your segmant on Fighting Floodwaters. Although I don't live in the Huntington area, I do live in Point Pleasant and every time it rains not only do the streets flood but my basement floods. Trying several different ways of trying to keep the water from running off the streets into the yards digging ditches across the front of our yards to go to the storm drain, thinking that the water is not going down the drain due to debrese closing it off after several neighbors help we discover that 6 storm drains have been filled in with gravel, sand, and dirt. This has been brought to the citys attention for the past 8 years and guess what NO RESPONSE YET. Who in their right minds would do this?
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