Southside flooding sparks lengthy debate at Lorain Council session

LORAIN — Flooding last month in south Lorain was at the center of a lengthy debate during a committee meeting this week. On June 17, portions of the city's south side saw water flow into basements and fill roadways during a storm that evening. City officials said the damage to residents' homes and businesses was twofold. Lorain, unlike most legacy cities, does not have combined sanitary and storm sewers. Its sanitary sewers handle wastewater from homes and businesses — byproducts of flushing toilets, running showers, dishwashers and other appliances; while its storm sewers handle runoff and rainwater. Sanitary sewer lines run the untreated wastewater to the city's two wastewater treatment plants, either Black River Wastewater Treatment Plant or Philip Q. Maiorana Wastewater Treatment Plant. The water is then treated to Environmental Protection Agency standards and discharged into the Black River or Lake Erie. Storm sewer lines run directly to the Black River or Lake Erie. The problem last month, storm water manager Kathryn Golden said, was not that its storm sewers were ill-equipped to handle the rain amount it received, but that its drains were clogged with trash and debris — which caused roadways and intersections to flood. As for the basements that flooded, many of those are in homes built before the 1960s and may have gutters that tie directly into the house's sanitary sewer line, she said. During a storm, that extra influx of water into the sanitary lines, combined with residents' regular use of their plumbing fixtures, can overwork the system and cause it to back up into basement floor drains, sinks, bathtubs and other fixtures. During a discussion Monday, Councilman Angel Arroyo, D-6th Ward, questioned the amount of money spent on sewer and water lines on the city's south side when flooding continues to be a problem — he estimated nearly $8 million in about a decade. "For the last 250 years, South Lorain has been the foundation of the city," Arroyo said. "What (the 8th Ward) is now, south Lorain was then." He said he wanted to see the continued flooding addressed, noting the storm two years ago that caused major damage was a 100-year storm, while last month's left only an inch of rain. Golden said during that meeting those funds were on sanitary sewer and water distribution projects — not storm sewer improvements. Much of those funds have gone toward sanitary sewer lining, which started in 2018 as a way to repair older sewer lines without having to totally dig out and replace the lines and leave residents without service. Lining the old clay or cast iron sanitary sewer pipes keeps them from being infiltrated with rainwater through cracked pipes, Utilities Director Joseph Carbonaro said during Monday's session. The city hopes to conduct a study on the efficacy of its lining efforts and determine where else in the city the work is needed, he said. The lining projects do not solve the issue with older homes' downspouts being tied into sanitary sewer lines. Carbonaro said crews are in South Lorain "a lot," with Pearl Avenue near East 28th Street one of its hot spots for problems with storm water catch basins. He said crews often go out to check if the storm drains are clear before it rains. Safety/Service Director Rey Carrion agreed that on June 17, Pearl Avenue had "a lot of water," with the Steel City Bar seeing more than 18 inches flowing alongside and into its property. He said at that time, the catch basins were plugged solid because rain water had washed more debris into them that acted like the stopper in a bathtub. "I think an aggressive cleaning program is going to help," Carrion said. Golden agreed. She said it was a maintenance, not capacity issue that caused the problems June 17. The city has 7,500 catch basins to keep clear and implored residents to help by keeping grass clippings out of the road (and by extension its storm sewers) and dispose of trash properly. As for the problems of sanitary sewer backflow into older homes, Golden and others discussed on Monday an effort piloted but never fully implemented called Project Dry Basement. That program, discussed hundreds of times over the years, looked to help relieve the upfront cost burden for residents in older homes looking to untie their downspouts from sanitary lines. The program would fix the issue with the storm water piping into the sanitary lines and place a backflow preventer valve on the sanitary line near the street to keep sanitary sewer water from flowing up into a resident's home during a surge. Dan Nutt, D-4th Ward, voiced concerns with financing the program and questioned if federal funds were available or if the cost could be assessed to an owner's property taxes and repaid over a 10- or 15-year period. "It definitely hinges on the finance side," Nutt said. "If there are any federal funds, let's try to find them. And if not, let's try to finance them." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.