Published: October 06, 2006 10:22 am            

Drainage causing headaches

CLINTON — Clinton School Superintendent Randy Clegg would have one less headache if water ran up hill. But Mother Nature set her own course during a very heavy rain storm last April and deposited a large amount of water and silt on two properties that adjoin the new north-end elementary school site.

Owners of one property, Drs. James Olney and Betty Hibler, are not happy and have concerns regarding drainage from the school property in the future.

According to Clegg, when the planning for the north-end school was being developed, there were requirements from the city engineer that the district address with water runoff issues.

The building is being constructed on 33 acres north of Main Avenue and sits on a large knoll with the main entrance access road coming in from Main Avenue.

“Our architect (and) our civil engineer in conjunction with the city engineer developed the plan… the primary goal was to control or slow down water runoff in response to large, heavy rains,” Clegg explained.

Clegg said retention ponds were designed into the plan to capture water from the entire school site, hold the water back and release it slowly over a long period of time.

“We don’t stop the water, we don’t move the water in a different direction, we just slow it down,” he explained.

When the grading plan was put together a year ago, an erosion plan also was put into place by the civil engineer in response to Iowa Department of Natural Resources rules.

“The grading engineer put up silt fences as per the plans and specifications,” Clegg related.

District Plant Services Director Gregg Cornilsen describes silt fences as heavy mesh fences that allow the water to drain through while holding back sediment.

According to Clegg, when the project shifted from the grading contractor to the construction contractor, the grading/erosion plan was reviewed again. At that time, Clegg said, more improvements were made and the plan was “beefed up.”

But then nature intervened.

“In April we had some pretty heavy rains that caused some blow-out,” Clegg said.

In response, more controls were put into place. The construction site currently is surrounded by five miles of silt fence.

“Since then I’m not aware of any major problems with silt or sediment flowing down since last April,” Clegg said.

But according to Wylie Pillers, a local attorney representing Olney and Hibler, “every time it rains more and more clay drains down.”

Pillers said there are two issues. One concerns the restoration of the site following the original damage.

Clegg said of the two properties in question, the Olney property was the one impacted with sediment.

“We put together a remediation plan and sent it to their legal representative back in July,” he explained. The district was just granted permission to go in and repair the damaged area on Monday.

“The (Kevin) Rockhrohr property, there was silt in the yard and we offered to restore that yard with our grounds crew.” Clegg said. “All we need to know is if and when he wants it done.”

According to Cornilsen, the small area of the Olney/Hibler property affected was the northeast corner of their woods. He described it as “just woods.”

Cornilsen said the retention pond slows the water down but it still is going to follow its natural course, which affects the Rockhrohrs’ yard but not the Olneys’.

Because Olney and Hibler, who are married, retained an attorney, the district’s plan was very specific: Go in and remove fallen brush and dead timber from the silted area, regrade the area to allow for proper drainage; spread new top soil at a depth of 2 to 4 inches and plant grass seed.

According to Pillers, the second issue is whether the holding pond or actual design are going to accomplish what everybody thought they would accomplish, and “I don’t think we have an answer to that question.”

But Clegg said the city engineer insisted on the size of the ponds and the civil engineer had a hand in designing the ponds, which were calculated based on a 100-year measure of rainfall.

“You have to assume these people know what they are talking about,” Clegg said.

The DNR has been inspecting the site on a regular basis throughout the entire project.

“In my last communication with James Sievers (an environmental specialist senior for the DNR) he did not see any problems with our site,” Clegg continued. “He didn’t see any sediment runoff in August.”

According to Sievers, there is a storm water permit for the site and there are specific requirements that must be maintained to be in compliance.

“When I was there in August, the site was in compliance with the permit,” Sievers told the Herald in a phone interview.

The problem of water runoff is not a new one. Clegg said in 2003 the site of the new school was a corn field and a study had been done by the city at that time addressing the runoff drains from the cornfield.

The report revealed that once the water runoff gets to 26th Avenue North it is channeled south by means of a shallow swale.

“The study showed that the swale is not adequately sized to handle the large storm runoff because the water runs east instead of south,” he explained. “It’s not a new problem and the construction of the new school, if anything, is making the problem better because we are slowing down the water.”

Pillers said his clients will cooperate with the district in terms of allowing its contractor do the restoration to their property.

“That’s never been an issue,” Pillers said. “One of the problems clearly has been that whole side of the hill — we’ve gone the whole summer and it wasn’t seeded. Or at least it didn’t grow up in seed. It’s not something we’re being adversarial about. We’re just trying to do what’s right.

“The restoration may or may not solve the problem,” Pillers concluded. “I don’t think there’s an answer to that question at this point. I think that’s a fair assessment of our position.”

        

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