What do you think of the city's flood preparations?

It sounds like they are taking all of the right steps to protect Naperville as much as possible. I understand, though, that there are people in Warrenville who think the damn exacerbates the flooding problem in their neck of the woods.

When the improvements to Fawell Dam and the associated plans were first introduced in the months preceding the proposed work to the dam there were some who voiced concerns as to why the Brookdale area to the west of McDowell FP and the West Branch of the DuPage River were not being protected by any kind of berm. These concerns were ignored even though the county's own elevation maps provided at the time of community input clearly identifies several low lying areas that could potentially be at risk of flooding UPSTREAM of the dam when the gate was closed. These low lying areas were clearly lower than the maximum potential height of the dam gate and were especially lower than the emergency spillover height of dam itself even considering that the emergency spillover height was being lowered.

These concerns proved worthy and true when emergency sandbagging of River Glen church and several homes in Brookdale on Redfield Road during the last floor. In fact the flooding was so severe that Raymond Drive was closed for nearly a day due to floodwaters. Once again ground level electric transformers were proactively turned off by the city so that they would not short out and without power basements in homes without power started to flood due to overflowing ground water in sump pits.

The area north and east of McDowell FP was a quarry for many years. The underlying g round in this area is very porous. Whenever McDowell FP becomes flooded the hydrostatic pressure of all of this extra water and the height of the water column exerts additional force on the underground aquifer and the net result is that homes both to the east and west of McDowell FP have developed problems with higher groundwater, basement flooding, sump pumps that now run continuously year round, mold, and a host of other problems that were not properly considered, evaluated, or mitigated before the changes to the dam were made.

Clearly properties that lie below the dam are better protected than they were previously. There is no argument with that. However, officials do not appear to be doing anything to address, correct, or resolve the new problems they have created upstream of the dam. Clearly there are a lot of homeowners in the general area of Brookdale and Cress Creek who now have to deal with issues that never existed in the last 30 to 40 years. Considering that Raymond Drive is a major city artery feeding to and from the Winfield Road entrance to I-88 an immediate solution needs to be found to keep this road open at all time and most especially during times of inclement weather.

If you are really interested in flood planning (or lack thereof), talk to the people who live in the Springhill subdivision.

Every time the City of Naperville makes an "improvement" elsewhere in the city, Springhill gets more and more flooding.

The staff insists it's getting better, though.

It brings us back to the old axiom "Who ya gonna believe? The Naperville city staff, or your lying eyes?"

You people kill me! One minute you're complaining about the high cost of government and the next you want them to spend more money to relieve the "flooding" problem you have because you chose to buy a house in a basin shaped subdivision like Springhill. Cress Creek has had flooding problems of one type or another since it was built, as has Brookdale and several other areas. All of those areas flooded before houses were there. It's nothing new.
How about this; set up special assessment districts so the people who were naive enough to buy or build homes in floor-prone areas have to pony up and pay for their own problems, rather than inflicting the costs on every tax payer. "Caveat emptor". People should take more responsibilty for their bad decisions rather than trying to make all of us pay for them.

Amen anon at 12:10! If you buy a house in a flood area you should be responsible for the cost to protect it from flooding. Kind of like the people who bought homes next to 75th street and now want EXPENSIVE sound walls put up and want the city to pay for the easements now for the stupid sound walls that THEY requested.

Sorry Anonymous 12:10 but I believe you are mistaken about the flooding in Brookdale. We've been here for 20 years and the only real problem was the "100 year flood" about a dozen years ago. This year, we have had to deal with sump pumps that run far more than normal and a few incidences of flooded intersections, but it is hard to tell if that is a function of the dam operation or the fact that this is the wettest year in decades.

If a property becomes flood prone or a natural runoff area due to a major construction project (like the dam) it doesn't seem fair to blame the people now affected. I would venture to say that when they bought their home this issue was a non factor, it was only after the dam was built that they began having problems.

There are many homes in this area that are probably 40+ years old that at one time were out in the "sticks", but now are right in the middle of the action.

Anon 12:10,

You would be more believable if you had some real data.

In Springhill, the people bought knowing it was part of the gigantic Steeple Chase fllod basin.

However, since the city started making improvements to flooding in other areas, one of the outcomes was MORE H2O getting into Springhill QUICKER.

Once there, it had NO WHERE TO GO.

Thus, decisions made by the city has caused more flooding above and beyond that which has occurred there for hundreds of years.

In short, the current excessive flooding is being caused by the decisions made by the city of Naperville.

All the people in Springhill want is for the city to fix the problems it caused and to NOT cause more by approving ill-conceived developments (such as the one they are trying to horn in on the west side of Seeger park) or crazy white elephants like OMNIA.

I'm not trying to downplay the issues affecting Springhill but the flooding problems over there have nothing to do with the DuPage or Fawell Dam. Maybe the Sun will consider writing a story on the history of the flooding issues over there? I just hate to see this topic get hijacked away from the main point being Fawell Dam and the DuPage river.

There are serious groundwater issues in Brookdale that have never existed before. For the last few years residents in and around Cress Creek have been reporting similar issues. None of these problems are going away on there own and if the city is doing anything to investigate or mitigate what is happening it has not been very open or forthright with the residents who are affected by the changes in the groundwater.

Last winter when we had the heavy rain after the ground froze there were many homes where ground water started coming in thru every crack in the basement floor and foundation. Many in homes that had never had any kind of flooding before. There are literally dozens of homes that have sump pumps running nearly continuously and even weeks after the last rain. Some homes have taken drastic action and torn up their lawn to connect sump pumps to the storm sewer. Others have needed to run drain lines from their backyard to the front street gutter. Driving around it is obvious from where the water is who is still pumping water days and weeks after a rain. All of these drain lines across sidewalks make it a challenge for kids riding bikes and moms pushing strollers. These homes have been here for 30 plus years and all of a sudden something drastically different has happened to the groundwater and it is only in the last couple of years. If these changes are not the direct result of the Fawell Dam and the DuPage river then the city needs to get some civil engineering experts out here to explain what is happening before any more property damage occurs.

Here is an odd little factoid for all of you:

The City of Naperville defines flooding as "water that enters a home OVER the foundation".

So, any other water problems are defined as homeowner issues. Water through cracks? Your problem.

Water breaks through a basement window? Your problem, not a flooding issue.

Water rises and overwhelms your sump pumps and hits 5 feet in your basement? Not flooding ---- a homeowner's issue.

Yes, there has always been some water issues, but the new pump stations, yes the Dam controls, and such that rush water to where city staff want it IS an issue. They clear out other areas quicker, but the brunt hits the old flood plains, specificaly Springhill, Huffman street, and it sounds like Brookdale.

Go staff!!!

Anonymous on June 17, 2009 12:20 AM wrote:

I just hate to see this topic get hijacked away from the main point being Fawell Dam and the DuPage river.

You must be new, here. Hijacking topics is such an art form for some bloggers that it will be a miracle if this topic should survive another dozen posts without becoming about something having nothing whatsoever to do with flooding anywhere.

Anonymous June 17 9:27AM
Where are you getting your definitions of flooding from? I would like to see that site if you will provide it for us. Why would the City be responsible for water coming in thru cracks in your foundation? or why should they be responsible for your sump pump failure? What do you feel is the homeowners responsibilty for flooding on private property? Everyone seems to be concerned with high taxes, now you want to use City staff time to deal with issues that are private property maintenance issues.

Silly us!

And we thought the title of the thread "What do you think of the city's flood preparations?" was indivcative of what we are supposed to blog about.

Sorry, anon 12:20, for discussing flooding.