Watershed, city and school engineers to talk NE drainage

Glencoe city, Glencoe-Silver Lake school district and county officials all attended the Buffalo Creek Watershed meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 26, to hear a presentation from Short Elliot Hendrickson (SEH) Engineer Justin Black on the proposed Northeast Drainage Project and receive an update on the city’s permit for the project.
Black explained the project encompasses the school’s drainage pond on the northeast side of town. Currently. that area experiences flooding because the water is draining backward into the storm system.
The project will lay 5,000 feet of 30-inch pipe east to the East Ditch with an additional 30-inch culvert crossing under the railroad tracks. This will provide an improved outlet for the school district with its new construction, an emergency overflow and an outlet for the potential Morningside Avenue project.
Rocky Keehn, also of SEH, joined Black to present the potential impacts from the culvert on the Buffalo Creek Watershed. Keehn said based on a government flow program, the flow rate with the culvert will have the water flowing past before the Buffalo Creek comes into the flow. Because of this, he said the culvert might be able to assist in reducing flow at peak time, to a varying degree.
Watershed Board Manager Corey Henke said it cannot be assumed that all the water is coming from the west because rain events happen in the immediate area.
Keehn agreed that the effect depends on rainfall and that it’s a timing issue.
Keehn said that any change to any culvert could cause changes in flow, and the watershed would have to monitor every one if it wanted to guarantee no impact. The watershed board said it does monitor every one.

For more from the meeting, see the Feb. 3 print edition of The Chronicle.