On the heels of a federal disaster declaration for Macomb County following severe storms last August, local communities are taking steps to help alleviate flood risks.
New Baltimore is looking to mitigate flooding in a long-affected area of the community. The city council on Feb. 12 approved a proposal from Project Control Engineering to complete a topographic survey of Woodland Drive, off County Line Road near Willow Creek Estates, in an effort to improve the drainage plan.
Residents have voiced frustrations over flooding for years as wetland clearing and further development threaten to exacerbate the issue.
“Residents along Woodland Drive have made numerous complaints about flooding on their properties,” PCE President John Monte wrote in the survey proposal. “During the extreme storm events last summer, water entered homes, damaged property and flooded streets. We have had several meetings to discuss the issues and what could be done to help alleviate the risk of flooding.”
Goals of the topographic survey include defining drainage patterns and identifying restrictions. It will include grade elevations in back yards, ditches, drainage swales and culverts. The information will be used to develop an overall plan to improve drainage courses, Monte said in the proposal.
The survey, estimated to cost $7,650, is expected to be done within the next few weeks.
“We’d like to have the cooperation of the people that live on Woodland Drive to enter their rear yards to shoot some of those grades so that we can help determine some of the things that are happening,” Monte said at the recent city council meeting.
In the proposal, Monte listed the following initial findings from observations and discussions with residents:
• Floodwaters enter along the north property line from the adjacent wetland conservation area behind the Willow Creek Estates development.
• The outlet ditch draining through Willow Creek needs to be maintained to help reduce the overflow from the wetlands.
• Rear yard drainage along Woodland Drive is poor or non-existent.
• Culverts are clogged or poorly draining.
• Road ditches need regrading and culverts replaced.
• The drainage outlet needs to be cleaned and improved.
Woodland Drive resident Linda Gonyeau spoke on the matter during public comments.
“The heavy flooding is not due to heavy rainfalls alone,” she said. “It’s because of the runoff from the Willow Creek Phase 2 being at a higher elevation than Woodland Drive, and we also get the backup from the pond on the easement.
“I have asked you in the past not to let this fall on deaf ears. I am asking you this again.”
At the end of the meeting, Mayor Tom Semaan addressed the concerned citizens who live around the Willow Creek development.
“We have received multiple phone calls, multiple emails, some very distressed, others not as much,” he said. “But what I will say is this: We are doing everything humanly possible to look into a solution to a problem that goes back to the development of that street. And it is of no error of anybody sitting here that there is a flooding issue, but we certainly will do everything in our power, humanly possible, to come up with a solution that we can help you avert any future disasters.”
When the survey is complete, a report will be provided to the city council, the mayor said.
“That will give us a lot of information on the flow of the water — where it’s coming from, where it’s going to — and we’ll take it from there,” Semaan said.
The motion to approve the proposal was made by council member Jacob Dittrich, supported by council member Jason Harvey and unanimously approved.
Pond restoration
In neighboring Chesterfield Township, officials are looking to help mitigate flooding by cleaning out and restoring a handful of detention ponds that store water in local subdivisions. The township Board of Trustees on Feb. 13 voted 5-2 to award engineering design services for retention basin restoration in the Stonehenge subdivision off Donner Road to Spalding DeDecker in the amount of about $27,500.
“Back in the 1990s the township agreed to operate and maintain six residential detention ponds and the pumping systems,” said Mitch O’Connor, public services director and township engineer.
“Of the six ponds that we operate this district had the highest reported flooding, so that’s why we selected this one first,” he added.
“This proposal would be to bring the pond back to its original condition, which would mean dewatering the station, removing all of the trees and debris, excavating it back to its original side slopes and capacity, and then re-sodding it. Because it is a special assessment district the project has to be publicly bid and awarded, so this proposal is for Spaulding to prepare bidding documents to get you to that point to receive public bids.”
O’Connor said annual maintenance has included the township mowing as much as they can on the upper banks, and keeping the pumps operating and replacing them as needed. Residents pay electricity costs for the pumps.
“What’s happened over time is the water hits the subdivision, it goes into basins and its piped to the pond,” he added. “Sometimes you lose soil that’s piped into the pond, so the pond itself probably isn’t at its original design capacity.”
Supervisor Brad Kersten said a public information meeting will take place once bids are secured and residents will be kept informed.
Assistance may be available
Earlier this month, President Joe Biden approved Michigan’s request for a disaster declaration in Macomb County and eight other counties across the state as a result of the heavy storms last summer, unlocking assistance for affected citizens. Communities were pelted with several inches of rain during a short amount of time in late August 2023, resulting in flooding that left local roads under water and homes damaged. Chesterfield Township and New Baltimore both declared a local state of emergency after the storms.
“It was most unnatural,” the New Baltimore mayor said, recalling the impact of last year’s flooding event. “It was very widespread. And we will do, as I said, everything in our power to help mitigate this where we can.
“Nobody wants to see their neighbor suffer. We are all neighbors. The only way that we can get this accomplished is to work together.”
The declaration opens the path to federal assistance for residents of Eaton, Ingham, Ionia, Kent, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland and Wayne counties. Assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.
FEMA is planning to set up a disaster resource center in the community where affected individuals can talk to representatives from various federal agencies about assistance being offered. A location had not yet been announced as of Feb. 15.
“This does not exclude anybody who did not participate in the original evaluation,” the Chesterfield Township supervisor said at the Feb. 13 board meeting. “This is open to anybody in the township who suffered flooding during that phase.”
Residents and business owners who sustained losses in the designated areas can begin applying for assistance at DisasterAssistance.gov, by calling 800-621-FEMA (3362) or by using the FEMA App.
