Tuesday, June 22, 1999
Detention ponds credited with preventing flooding
By DIRK FILLPOT
Staff Writer
Abilene residents living in a flood-prone area credit newly
completed detention ponds with keeping their houses dry after
recent rainfalls.
Peggy Elmore and her husband have resided in a house on higher
ground near Catclaw Creek and Sunset for the past 50 years.
Mrs. Elmore said the couple’s house had been surrounded
by water and the streets were lakes after significant rainfalls
before the detention ponds were constructed. After recent heavy
rains, overflow was reduced to small streams running along sidewalks,
she said.
The potential lingers that a heavy rainfall could consume more
than sidewalks, she said.
“We don’t know what it would be if we got a 4- to
6-inch deluge, but so far it’s working very, very well,”
Elmore said.
The problems neighborhood residents faced weren’t present
before developments sprung up on Abilene’s south side, she
said. The area was considered a flood zone in 1983.
“It wasn’t in a flood zone when all these houses
were built and when we bought our house,” Elmore said. “It
was the cement jungles that caused it to flood when it did.”
The city has since required that new developments cannot cause
or worsen storm water runoff.
Marquita Vasquez, who also resides near Catclaw, said her den
was repeatedly flooded when the creek overflowed.
Vasquez and her husband had to re-carpet their house in 1994
because of floodwater damage, she said.
Her den was spared any damage from recent rains, which she
attributes to the detention ponds.
“This is the first good test,” she said. “It
did pretty good — better than it did before.”
Bob Lindley, city design services administrator, said the ponds
have proven successful.
“We have had three rainfalls in excess of an inch-and-a-half
since these ponds had been built, and we haven’t heard of
water being in those houses yet,” Lindley said. “You
build these things and then you have to sit back and wait and
see if they function the way they’re designed. We’re
just now getting to try it out.”
“This last rain pretty much showed us how successful it
was.”
The residences’ close proximity to the creek and low elevation
posed a challenge to designing a system that would work, he said.
The $350,000 project was completed early this year, Lindley
said. The city also plans two additional floodwater management
stages that will address the entire neighborhood’s concerns,
he said.
“The challenge was addressing concerns of the residents
whose concerns were primary in this process because of the amount
of damage they sustained multiple times per year,” said Elizabeth
Grindstaff, city downtown manager. “If you look at the project
in plan where there was park land and public rights of way, we
were able to take advantage of that and widen the creek. Another
important aspect of it was to try and slow the flow of water so
people who were further downstream were not negatively impacted.”
Some of the flooding problems residents faced have been alleviated,
but not prevented, said Andy Anderson, city community development
director.
“They don’t solve flooding problems up and down Catclaw
Creek, but what they do is cut down the frequency with which it
occurs,” Anderson said. “The past three or four storms
would have caused houses to be flooded that weren’t.”
Lindley said he’s pleased with the detention ponds’
recent success and the collaborative efforts between the city
and the neighborhood.
“The people came to us for help; we helped them as much
as we could. We followed it on through and now we’re celebrating
it working,” he said.
Dirk Fillpot can be reached at 676-6738 or fillpotd@abinews.com.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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