The Hour reports that the subject of flooding came up at a District D neighborhood meeting hosted by Common Council members, Doug Hempstead-R and Kelly Straniti-R. The Silvermine area, is not unfamiliar to flooding issues. All these stories about flooding the other night reminded me that the great flood of 1955 affected many towns. And so, similarly, I wondered about what, if any, were the flood issues facing our neighboring towns.

Fairfield

In a 40-1 vote Monday night, the Representative Town Meeting passed a special appropriation of $640,000 for an immediate flood control and prevention plan for several areas throughout town.

According to the Fairfield Citizen-News, the town of Fairfield will use a short term bond, to pay for a list of things that could be accomplished immediately to alleviate funding. The flood area is near the Rooster River and in the Holland Hill, Brooklawn Park and Stratfield sections of Fairfield.

Director of Public Works Richard White and Superintendent of Public Works Scott Bartlett to come up with a list of initiatives that could be completed between now and September to combat the flooding woes. White and Bartlett came up with the immediate flood control project that includes four separate initiatives, which is what the RTM passed Monday night.
The first initiative is categorized by “major projects” and has a price tag of $410,000. The most costly of the major projects is $200,000 for work to be done on Barton Road. The work involves removing three discharge pipes and replacing them with a 4-by-12-foot culvert.

For $75,000, the selectmen approved increasing the circumference of the drainage system from 8 inches to 18 inches on Henry Street. With a combined price tag of $135,000, the DPW will construct a pipe to partially and temporarily drain the Own Fish Park and Gould Manor Park ponds before any storms and use the ponds for water storage, in combination with other improvements.

The appropriation also calls for $80,000 worth of trash rack modification to four areas of town. Trash racks are filters placed in the sewer lines that prevent debris from clogging culverts or downstream structures. Each trash rack, located in the Nutmeg Lane, Osborn Hill Road, Ivy Lane and Daybreak Road areas of town, would cost $20,000 each. The plan calls for adding a series of racks that would collect the debris in stages before the entrance to the drainage pipe.

The selectmen also approved appropriating $125,000 to hire an outside engineering consultant to study the water flow in the sewer lines to determine if the pipes need to be upgraded. According to documentation supplied by the first selectman’s office, “Because of the current work load in our Engineering Department and high priority of flooding” an outside consultant is needed.

The last part of the flood project calls for a video camera inspection of numerous drain lines for $25,000. A “TV inspection,” as the DPW calls it, actually takes a camera into the sewer lines to inspect the condition and to see if there are any obstructions or needed replacements.

Darien
The Darien News-REview reports on the flooding and flood victims who were hard hit by the March 2, 2007 storm.

What’s making people anxious is that the water level seems to be rising with each passing year.

“This never happened when we bought our house in June 2003. I can tell you off the bat that the water-table underneath our house has gone up phenomenally over the past three-and-a-half years,” he says.

He says their sump pump has been working “24/7″ just to keep the water off their basement.

Wood concurs, saying, “Each time, the water seems to be getting higher. In April 2006, the problem suddenly escalated.”

What’s worse, its composition seems to be changing.

“This time, the water brought down so much mud and silt like I have never seen before. (Thrown in it) were snowboards, garbage cans, limbs of trees,” she says.

Ad-hoc visits to Town Hall with complaints and photographic evidence of the inundated basements and drowning vehicles, has been of little help, she alleges.

“In September 2006, some people had conversations with Town Hall, but they (officials) said that they couldn’t help,” Wood said.

“When we called the Fire Department on March 2, not a single person came to our rescue. They told us, ‘We have nobody here. We can’t help you,’” Banerjee said.

Westport
Westport was also hard hit by flooding from the March 2 storm, but as the WestportNow.com article says, the flooding issues have been increasing there as well.

Westport officials are planning to update an almost 30-year-old study of nine town waterways and their potential for flooding as a check on current priorities.

Public Works Director Stephen Edwards said the intent of the update to the 1978 Jackson Study is to better respond to current weather patterns and land development trends in Westport.

The first step, he said, is to get the Flood and Erosion Control Board and the Conservation Commission on board with the project. The Flood and Erosion Control Board will discuss the proposal at its April 4 meeting.

The original Jackson Study, Edwards said, was in response to severe flooding in Westport during the 1960s. It examined nine waterways including Muddy Brook, Dead Mans Brook, Pussy Willow Brook, Stony Brook, Poplar Plains, Indian River, Silver Brook and New Creek. The Saugatuck River and Sasco Creek were not included because they were included in a federal review.

The study update is in response to dynamics of flooding Westport officials have seen in the last year, Edwards said.

“It’s a result in the increase in rain, more development and our inability to gain easements to do our projects,” he said.

Westport has seen a number of flooding instances when there have been heavy rains over the course of the last year, including earlier this month (See WestportNow March 2).

Town officials are still pursuing a 1975 program to mitigate flooding, Edwards said, and are now at the point where they need to analyze the program’s priorities and possibly re-establish them.

Water doesn’t recognize town lines. I would hazard a guess to say that the coastal towns are all experiencing increased water from upstate towns, where development occurs just as much. It seems also that all these towns are all going down different paths to alleviate flooding. Perhaps its time for a more regional approach.

source: Fairfield Citizen-News, Flood Control Plan Gets Green Light By Erin Lynch March 28, 2007

source: Darien News-Review, Flooded Residents Want Help By Alakananda Mookerjee, March 28, 2007

source: westportnow.com, Officials Plan Update to Flooding Study By Jennifer Connic, March 22, 2007