$70,000 Worth of Short-Term Stormwater Control Projects to Go Before Council

While Winnetka moves steadily ahead with developing larger, long-term storm water projects, several short-term programs totaling $70,000 will be put before the Village Council this month that can provide more immediate relief for flooding and sewer backups.

Public Works Director Steve Saunders will submit two proposals that could give homeowners immediate relief from sewer backups, while ensuring the crucial Ash Street pumping station will be less susceptible to power failures when it’s most needed, in the middle of heavy storms. The Council will examine the programs in a series of budget meetings starting Feb. 16, said Village Manager Rob Bahan.

RELATED:

“We’ve increased the budget from last year -- to hike the village’s share of converting older homes from gravity sanitary sewer systems to overhead sewer systems,” Saunders said.  

“We’ve had a program in place for last six years where the village would defray part of the cost of conversion. Last fall the Village Council increased the participation levels in that program, and we’ll increase it from $15,000 to $30,000 so more homes will be able to take advantage of it.”

Overhead sewers, considered by plumbing experts the “Cadillac” of home flood-control systems, in effect raise the water table. A pump lifts water from the basement into the overhead sewer, which carries the water outside.

Preventing power failures at Ash Street pump

Meanwhile, the second proposal, budgeted for $40,000, provides for a larger pump and re-routing electrical service from an overhead wire to an underground circuit for the Ash Street station. Power failures of the kind that bedeviled the North Shore during last summer’s storms only made matters worse when huge amounts of water needed to be pumped through sewers. Storm debris fell into the overhead line, temporarily cutting power to the station.

“Right now parts of [the electrical] line are fed overhead,” Saunders said. “So if there’s a power outage, the station is susceptible. We’re trying to get it to a different circuit where primary feed would be underground. Bring the power to the pump station from a different circuit and eliminate overhead exposure.”

“Our operating budget is pretty close to flat, so there shouldn’t be anything in these programs that would be controversial or difficult.”

Since last summer’s problems, Council members have continually examined flood-control proposals and engineering reports. The severity of the problems logically would get them in a green-light mood for the short-term programs.

“We had a combination of things occurring,” said Village Manager Rob Bahan. “We had overland flooding where water came in, sought its lowest point and went in through window wells to cause significant damage. We also had sanitary sewer backups. Some poor folks experienced both. We had over 1,000 homes flood.”

Not enough open space for retention ponds

Fully developed by the mid-20th century, Winnetka scarcely has open land to help in flood control, a major impetus in the big project—which must undergo at least an 18-month regulatory review—to construct an eight-foot storm sewer tunnel under Willow Road from Glendale Avenue to Lake Michigan. A recent survey found the proposed tunnel would bore through clay, which at an estimated $32.5 million was far less costly than the $56.9 million if the area was comprised of rock.

“Winnetka has a fair amount of ground within the 100-year flood plain of the Skokie River, so by definition it’s low-lying,” said Saunders. “When Winnetka was developed, there were different engineering standards in place and different thoughts about storm water. Newer communities have detention basins and overland flow routes [channeled] through back yards to get into detention basins. We’re trying to retrofit areas, but we just don’t have the space to quickly and easily provide detention basins.

“You’re limited to existing open spaces, multi-use spaces under the jurisdiction of other governmental agencies like the Park District, school districts or the [Cook County] Forest Preserve. The cost and difficulty of obtaining those open spaces makes that a daunting prospect, which is why we’re looking so hard at the tunnel project. That takes some of that inter-agency work off the table. At the end of the day, it’s essentially a village project.”

Winnetka has set up an e-mail address (stormwatercomments@winnetka.org) for residents to comment on flooding issues. The more information gathered, the better the Village can craft flood-control measures.

Bahan said in a huge flooding situation like last July’s or in September 2008, the village’s ability to assist individual homeowners is “severely constricted because it’s hitting everyone. What we look to do is to ensure all our pumping stations are working correctly. We’re really trying to keep the system working so we help the greater number of people.

“If there’s an emergency where someone’s in a tough spot, the fire department comes out, the police department comes out, if someone’s stuck in water, we have public safety to respond to individual emergencies. But in terms of protecting individual property, we don’t have the capacity to do that in the middle of a crisis.”

"Like" us on Facebook!