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7.14. SR 12-19-2005 Item # 7.14. 13065 Orono Parkway Elk River, MN 55330 December 19, 2005 Honorable Mayor and City Council City of Elk River 13065 Orono Parkway Elk River, MN 55330 RE: FOLLOW-UP ON DRAINAGE ISSUES Dear Mayor and Councilmembers: Tbis correspondence is intended as a follow-up to the corrective actions and! or planning that city staff has done relative to the numerous drainage issues that arose out of the fall rain storms when the city experienced over 20 inches of rainfall in a 30-day period. Some of the more significant drainage concerns are as follows: 1. 197th Avenue near Wilson Street Tbis is the area where the rainfall from the south side of 197th Avenue in the Hillside Estates Addition and area to the east came in such quantity that it bypassed the ditch on the south side of 197th Avenue, flowed across the street, and flooded two properties on the north side. A contractor was hired and the ditch on the south side was redefined, deepened, and cleaned. The bituminous trail coming down to 197th Avenue was slightly lowered and a culvert was placed under it on the south side of 197th. We believe that this will keep rainwater and snow melt on the south side of the road rather than having it sheet across 197th Avenue and cause flooding to properties on the north side. As a side note to this discussion, Mr. Willie Burton, one of the property owners on the north side of 197th Avenue, did file a claim with the city for damage caused by the storm waters. The claim was turned over to the City's insurance company and the adjuster for the League of Minnesota Cities ultimately denied the claim because their finding was that the public infrastructure was designed correctly and the problem with large rainfall events could not have been anticipated. Once it was brought to the City's attention, the City did take immediate action to rectify the situation and by making improvements to deal with these large rainfall events. Phone: 763.635.1000 Fax: 763.635.1090 www.cLelk-river.mn.us Mayor and City Council Drainage Issues Follow-up December 19, 2005 2. Ulysses Street/202nd Avenue Ponding Area This is the area where Mike Tietz lives. Mike appeared at an open mike session and informed the City Council that flooding of a ponding area outside of the easement boundary had inundated his pole barn. Phil Hals, Mark Thompson, and I were out there many times. It was our opinion that over the thirty years that this plat has been in existence, the accumulation of organic debris along with material washed into the easement area from the street had probably sealed the surface of the easement area slowing infiltration significandy. We monitored the water level and when it was obvious that it was not going to recede fast enough to allow excavation in the ponding areas, we had a contractor go in and excavate in the center of the easement area to break through any surface barrier and allow the water to recede. It is staff's intent to come back in the spring of the year and further define this ponding area. It should be noted that when we staked the easement area for our contractor to work in, we discovered that Mr. Tietz's driveway to his pole barn is built through the corner of the drainage and utility easement. We will be working with Mr. Tietz in the spring to enlarge the ponding area, deepen it as much as possible, and redefine the surface area infiltration characteristics. 3. Greenhead Acre Third Addition Pond Phil Hals and I received a call from a concerned citizen in Greenhead Acres Third Addition regarding potential flooding of their walkout home. As we investigated this, we determined that the pond just to the south of the home was actually higher than the house basement. Further investigation indicated that there had previously been a culvert maintaining a lower level to this ponding area. Phil hired a contractor to reestablish an oudet from this pond and got the water service back down below the home's basement. In re-establishing this oudet and placing a new culvert, the old culvert was found. It has silted in over a number of years and was no longer functioning. Phil and I are still working with John Norgren, County Ditch Inspector, to ensure that water that comes out of this pond ultimately makes it to the County ditch system. There may be some additional ditch cleaning or lateral line establishment necessary in the spring of 2006. 4. Hillside Estates Pond Outlet We have been continuing to work with Mr. Rick Foster, the developer for the Hillside Estates area, regarding a large pond in the center of his development that has no oudet. During the thirty days of rain, this pond exceeded its banks and was actually flooding adjacent private property. No homes were impacted by this flooding outside of the pond boundaries but garden sheds and swing sets along with lawn areas were damaged. This is the pond flooding that resulted in the pumping for several weeks in the Movie Gallery /Leann Chin parking lot area and out of the Hillside Estates pond in question. The storm sewer located in the Movie Gallery /Leann Chin parking lot has been modified to provide a gravity line oudetting from the highway ditch. This has been installed and all restoration has been accomplished at the expense of Mr. F oster. We have been working with Mr. Foster on a permanent overflow storm sewer line from the pond located in Hillside Estates. I will have a PowerPoint presentation at Monday evening's meeting to show this area in greater detail. We believe we have come up with a solution which will provide a permanent overflow from this storm pond which previously had no oudet. Mr. Foster will be working with the residents in Mayor and City Council Drainage Issues Follow~up December 19, 2005 his Hillside Estates 7th Addition area to potentially fill some of the backyards to ensure that water does not encroach onto private property. Mr. Foster has indicated his plan is to install this overflow line in the spring, possible in conjunction with the continuation of the development of the Hillside area with Hillside Estates 10th Addition. 5. Deerfie1d Third Addition Pond Outlet (Collins/Koch area) In working with Mr. Foster on the permanent gravity outfall from the Hillside Estates area, it has provided us an opportunity for a similar outlet from the Deerfield Third pond. This is the pond that the City has been dealing with Mr. Dan Collins on for several years. This pond takes drainage from Deerfield Third and a portion of Woods at Hillside and has no outlet. I again will have a PowerPoint presentation to discuss in further detail the work that would be necessary to provide a permanent outfall from this area controlling the maximum pond elevation. In general, it would involve providing an overflow from this pond northerly into the Hillside Estates area. This overflow would then convey storm water through the existing Hillside Estates area drainage system northerly to a point where a connection would also need to be made to the Hillside Estates overflow outlet discussed in the item just above. Once this permanent outlet is established, then a connection could be made between the small, isolated wetland area behind Teri Koch's home and the larger wetland ponding area behind Dan Collins home. This would provide a permanent outlet controlling the levels in both wetland/ponding areas. I have notified Mr. Collins by voicemail that this issue will be on the Council agenda Monday so he could be in attendance. 6. Miscellaneous Drainage Issues Beyond the specific drainage concerns listed above, there were a number of other areas of drainage concerns that Phil, Mark, or I were made aware of. We have worked with adjacent property owners and/or monitored situations to make sure that these issues did not get any worse and were corrected. Most of these are relatively minor. Some only involved explaining to adjacent homeowners that the drainage system did work as it was planned since there had been no large rainfall events since people had moved into these areas. I will be available at Monday evening's meeting with a presentation to further discuss some of these drainage issues listed above. I will be looking for City Council direction to continue work on accomplishing the Deerfield Third pond overflow in working in conjunction with the development and storm drainage overflow proposed in the Hillside Estates 10th Addition area. Sincerely, ~?J1lCW4U Terry J. Maurer City Engineer