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Water Woes

Laurie Wink
The News-Dispatch

TRAIL CREEK - The last thing some area residents want to hear is today's National Weather Service prediction for a 60 percent chance of rain, with up to a quarter inch of rainfall.

On top of already high water tables countywide, that's not welcome news.

Jennifer Mikulski, 603 Sunnyside Drive, said water has been in her basement for "a couple of months."

"We used to have furniture down there, but we can't anymore," she said. "It's pretty bad this year, honestly. It's depressing."

Another town resident, Ron Pitman, 619 Longwood Drive, said he doesn't have a basement because the water table is too high, but he has problems driving down his street when the water level is up.

"It's hard to use the toilets," Pitman said. "You don't take too many showers or do the laundry" because waste water goes into septic systems.

According to Pitman, the Indiana Department of Transportation created a retention pond near Johnson Road and U.S. 20, near the Family Express, that was supposed to take care of the water that drains from the high school on Pahs Road. He said it hasn't helped.

"If I had come through here after it rained, I would never have bought this house," said Pitman, who has lived there 28 years.

Anne Dobbs, Trail Creek clerk/treasurer, has been hearing about water problems. "I have had I don't know how many phone calls today, she said Tuesday. There's nothing I can do with this situation."

Dobbs was just thankful for the sunshine and temperatures in the '70s Tuesday. "A few days like this and it (groundwater) will drop quickly." But she said finding any funding in the town's budget for a storm sewer project will be next to impossible.

"With the financial situation that every community is in, we're hanging on to pay for emergency services," Dobbs said. "We're not an ever-flowing well of money."

Residents on Welnetz Road and Roeske Avenue also are dealing with water problems on a daily basis.

The La Porte County Commission on Tuesday called for a collective workshop for county, city and town officials to identify ways to alleviate some of the long-standing groundwater problems that occasionally percolate to the surface.

Areas of the town of Trail Creek have been particularly hard-hit by the overabundance of water at times, starting with 9 inches of rain last September, 18 inches of snow that melted within a day, and several significant rains this month.

John Doyle, Trail Creek town engineer, has been discussing a storm drainage project on Welnetz Road near Roeske Avenue with Rick McVay, county highway engineer, and Al Walus, director of the Michigan City Sanitary District. All three governmental entities have property in the same general area.

Doyle said, "Probably any number of people in that area have been pumping out their basements. There needs to be a cooperative effort, primarily financial, to try to do something in that particular area."

Walus said, "We'll continue to work together to see, from an engineering standpoint, what can be done. Then it's up to funding sources to actually go to construction."

County Commissioner Mike Bohacek said high ground water problems can be found throughout the county, including on his own property.

"This has been a really, really bad year," Bohacek said. "I live in the town of Michiana Shores and I've never used the sump pump (before), but it's running non-stop."

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I know it hasn't been talked about that I have seen, but the Pines is having some MAJOR flooding issues as well.

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=51452.22

Officials hear flooding complaints

Craig Davison
For The News-Dispatch

TRAIL CREEK - People spoke of yards turned into ponds, scum growing on stagnant water and ducks resting there. They talked of flooding basements and sump pumps continually running.

More than 30 people were at Trail Creek Town Hall on Wednesday morning to discuss the flooding issue affecting them, many of whom live in the area of Roeske Avenue, Welnetz Road and Longwood Drive.

Members of the county and Trail Creek governments heard the complaints because the problem lies at the entities' boundaries near Michigan City.

Jeannie Voltz said she has a 2-year-old who can't play in their flooded backyard. She said the water being pumped out of some houses is being pumped right back into an area of water in her's and others' yards that are not draining.

Surveyor Tony Hendricks said the water tables are high after large amounts of rain in the fall, plenty of snow and a late winter. He spoke with a hydrologist about flooding in the county and was told one of the best ways to reduce water was vegetation. He said it is the biggest user of water.

Lola Dusza, Trail Creek, who has lived in her home for 30 years, said she picks up sticks and raked the leaves that could cause backups in the avenues for water to be drained. She said the easements between the houses aren't being cleaned.

"What do you expect us to do?" she said. "People don't want to move into Trail Creek because of the water situation."

Commissioner Mike Bohacek said ground water levels are high throughout the county, using the example of flooding at the Meadowview subdivision as an example. He said the county can help move surface water, but if the ground water is above the basement, residents need to pump it out. Bohacek, who said he has also had new flooding issues at his home as well, said they'll need to try to keep up with it.

Trail Creek Town Engineer John Doyle reiterated Bohacek's strategy for dealing with the problem.

Dusza said it's still rough running two sump pumps when the utility bill comes.

Bohacek said the county ditches that need to be cleaned will be.

"We will move on our ditches immediately," he said.

Commissioner Barbara Huston said it will need to be a cooperative effort.

"We can clean the ditches up, but it has to have some place to go," she said.

At the end of the workshop, residents were asked to identify their homes on maps for officials to study.

Another Trail Creek resident, Rebecca Patz, said they hadn't had any problems for 24 years at their home, not even during the storms that caused flooding last fall. She said she's not one to blame, but she wants it fixed. She wants to find out if they can make sure it won't happen again.

"I'd like to know why I have water," she said.

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Village Green seeks water solutions

Joseph Malan
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - Tim O'Shea says he's done everything he can to try to get his basement dry, but nothing's worked.

"I haven't had a dry basement since September," O'Shea said Thursday, as he spoke amongst a throng of Village Green residents.

The last time O'Shea's basement was dry was before Northwest Indiana received torrential rains and widespread flooding.

In September, it was sewage. Now, it's ground water leaking into his basement from the floor and walls.

Al Walus, sanitary district general manager, says he'll send someone out to inspect O'Shea's home, located on the corner of Ohio Street and Ogden Avenue. He reiterated, however, that there's not much that can be done about a high water table.

"There's really not much we can do to manage or manipulate large-scale areas of water," Walus said.

O'Shea is one of several residents of Village Green who have had flooding in their basements since last September's record rainfall. Concerned residents of the city's southern neighborhood gathered at Free Methodist Church, 3001 Ohio St., to hear Mayor Chuck Oberlie address their concerns.

Oberlie agreed with Walus that not much can be done for residents if a high water table is causing problems, rather than sewers.

"The most common (issue we're seeing) is water coming through walls or floors," he said.

Oberlie and Walus did present a construction plan that would possibly alleviate future flooding problems should a sewer back up in the neighborhood. As part of a two-phase program, the sanitary district will construct a new 15-inch-wide sanitary sewer on Ohio Street near U.S. 20. Meanwhile, sewer water will be rerouted out of Village Green, south on Ohio Street, and back east on Westwind Drive, essentially around the entirety of Village Green.

A few residents at Thursday's meeting still believed Striebel Pond, located west of the neighborhood, may be causing flooding, rather than preventing it.

Resident Steven Hough said a public engineer who had examined his property a few years ago said the pond "may not have been intended to lower the water table in this residential area but has had the opposite effect, which was raising it."

Walus, however, saw it differently.

"(City engineers) disagreed with the conclusion of (Hough's) report," he said.

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Walus: Sanitary District open to residents' concerns

Joseph Malan
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - Following Thursday's meeting with residents of the Village Green neighborhood, Al Walus is making sure their concerns are heard by the sanitary district.

Since the meeting Thursday, Walus said he has received several phone calls from Village Green residents whose basements are flooded. On Friday and Monday, the sanitary district sent workers to inspect manholes and storm sewers around the neighborhood. Walus, the district's general manager, said the district wants to make absolutely sure the recent basement-flooding problems aren't being caused by a backed-up sewer pipe.

As for Thursday's meeting itself, Walus said he was glad to hear residents' concerns.

"I think it was good dialogue," Walus said. "It was a chance for residents to hear directly from the mayor, as well as future plans for the neighborhood."

Recently, a record high water table has flooded several basements around the neighborhood. Although the table has since dipped below record levels, basements are still flooded.

Earlier in the month, the water table stood at 1.18 feet below the surface. It is now at approximately 3 feet below the surface, according to the U.S. Geological Survey - still above normal for this time of year.

Controlling the city's water table would be nearly impossible, Walus said, because the city encompasses 25 square miles.

"To evaluate how to manipulate water over that large of an area, it would be more problematic and more costly," Walus said.

The only thing remotely possible, he said, would be to build several small pumps to pump the water farther down from the surface.

Then again, once that water's pumped away, something has to be done with it, said Michael Hoffman, the district's collection superintendent.

"The volume of water you're displacing - it has to go someplace," he said.

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Meer wants end to storm system woes

Laurie Wink
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - Speaking as Third Ward City Councilman, Ron Meer brought several storm-system problems to the Sanitary District board Wednesday.

Meer also is employed by the Sanitary District, but he made it clear he was speaking to the board as a councilman when he discussed drainage issues in the Village Green neighborhood and in nearby areas within his ward.

"I was there as a city councilman, not as an employee," Meer said. "I cannot help what I see as an employee. I can't just ignore that when it comes time to be a councilman."

Meer questioned what he said was the poor condition and lack of maintenance in some of the city's storm sewers. He referred specifically to a discharge pipe in the north storm system serving Village Green, in the area of Broadbrook Lane and Lexington and Dorchester roads. Sanitary District workers found the pipe was largely submerged in mud and not effectively removing excess groundwater.

Boyd Phelps, Sanitary District board president, also is the city engineer and said he became aware of the Village Green storm sewer blockage several weeks ago. Phelps had asked for Sanitary District employees to trace the system for other possible problems.

Phelps said the storm drainage funds are "not great this year," and the district is limited in the amount of work it can get done.

Al Walus, Sanitary District general manager, spoke of the record-high groundwater levels within the past year. Based on 30 years of records kept by the U.S. Geological Survey in Wanatah, Walus said groundwater levels in March hit a historical high mark in the area.

"There's nothing we can do on a widespread basis to lower the groundwater tables," Walus said.

However, at a meeting with residents of the Village Green neighborhood in March, Walus said he was interested in hearing their concerns and would make sure problems with flooded basements weren't caused by backed-up pipes.

Meer agrees the water table has been high lately, but said that's all the more reason to make sure the storm systems are operating as efficiently as possible.

"If the storm systems are not being properly maintained, the storm water is not flowing off that area," Meer said. "I believe we're being more reactive than proactive. There is no scheduled maintenance of the storm systems in these trouble spots."

According to Meer, he's been dealing with ongoing complaints from residents in the 100 block of Bolka Avenue and Roberta Street. Meer said after recent heavy rains, about three-fourths of the street near 105 Bolka was covered in water. Phelps said he planned to take a look at the situation.

Other Michigan City residents brought their issues before the board Wednesday.

Sandy Stine, 602 W. Garfield St., made her second appearance at a commission meeting. The first time, she reported groundwater problems were causing her to run two water pumps 24/7, but she was told no other residents in her area had complained. This time, Stine said, she'd found out people in her block were also having water problems in their basements. When she asked if there was anything that could be done, Phelps said the district didn't have the money for it.

Stine asked why, then, it was possible for the Sanitary District to help residents of Ohio Street, who complained about raw sewage in their basements following heavy rains in September. The 20 residents mounted an active campaign to get the city to address what they said was ongoing issues for them. They petitioned the Michigan City Common Council for improvements to the area's sewer lines to prevent future backups.

At Wednesday's meeting, the sanitary board voted to execute a construction agreement with Woodruff & Sons to proceed with the construction of a new lift station at Ohio Street.

Meer said he is not the only city council member who is receiving calls from unhappy homeowners about water damage to their homes. He said most council members plan to attend the council utility committee meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday to discuss these issues with Walus.

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Contact Laurie Wink at lwink@thenewsdispatch.com.