CC PACKET 07281987 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

1 -12- 2 City having to pay more to have clean .rain water 3 treated as sewage. 4 Councilmember Marks commented that he perceived the conversation that 5 evening was almost identical to the one in 1978 which had led to the . 6• establishment of a task force whose Inflow and Infiltration (I-and I ) 7 study had concluded that, "after the ' rain of the century':" -which had 8 occurred that year, there was -little the City could do to -prevent 9 similar problems when a rainfall of the same extent hit the City the 1.0 next time. . 1-1 Mr. Farenholz persisted in his claim that the problem was caused more by 12 the storm sewer system than drain tile connections because he had . 13 perceived the people who resided on the City hills had not had the 14 problems that the ones at lower .levels had during the storm Thursday. 15 He suggested the City' s engineers be directed to look into that 16 possibility. 17 His observations were challenged by several Councilmembers who told Mr. 18 Farenholz he would see how wrong his assumptions were if he drove around 19 the City and saw for himself how much damaged material there was piled 20 near the street awaiting pick up, - irrespective of the topography of the 21 area. He was also told the City already had the kind of engineering - 22 study he had suggested, which ,had been made after the 1978 storm and 23 which had been the basis for the task force ' s conclusions - at that. time. 24 Mr. Farenholz ' claim that the water in basements along 29th Avenue had 25 receded as soon as the intersection had cleared was countered by the 26 Public Works Director who told him there was still sewage in the Surface 27 basement just down the street from him most of the following day. . 28- Mr. Childs reminded everyone that the City' s storm sewer system had been 29 designed to handle only the type of rainfall which was expected to fall 30 every five or ten years and not century or thousand year downpours which - 31 are way beyond the design capacity of a feasible system. He agreed the 32 sanitary sewers presented a separate problem. Mr. Childs clarified that 33 the 1978 I & I study had concluded that it would not be cost effec- 34 tive in terms of fees and costs to attempt to force disconnection of all 35 such non-conforming drain tile connections in the City. 36 The City Manager, on the other hand, suggested the . City might consider. 37 offering some- monetary incentive program to encourage disconnections,. 38 recognizing the costs the homeowner -would incur .making those 39 corrections. He' said it would- also be .quite costly to install either 40 backflow check valve system. Mr. Childs then indicated some of the 41 reasons. 'the southern portion of the City.-experiences the most problems 42 with sewage .backups is because the uphill drainage goes north to .about 43 36th Avenue on the west side of Silver Lake Road and past 33rd on the 44 east side. of Silver Lake -Road.. • 45