Levee 37 solved one flooding problem in Mt. Prospect, but did it create another?

The good news for residents living west of River Road in Mount Prospect and Prospect Heights is that Levee 37 has kept the Des Plaines River from overflowing into neighborhoods.

The bad news is that the levee apparently is making it harder to pump stormwater from those subdivisions water back into the river, leaving those residents to continue facing flooding problems.

Mount Prospect and Christopher B. Burke Engineering, Ltd. are embarking on a $117,000 engineering study of the Levee 37 tributary area in hopes of finding a solution.

"I have seen water coming up out of the sewer covers when we have the rain," said Mount Prospect Village Trustee Richard Rogers. "The people who live in those houses along River Road are constantly getting flooded."

The levee, he said, solved the problem of the river overflowing into the neighborhood, but created a new problem in the process.

"Now we have got the problem that it also stops our water from getting to the river," Rogers said.

The upcoming analysis will focus on pump stations #1 and #2, which were installed in 2011 along with Levee 37. Their job is to pump water out of the subdivisions west of River Road, but in heavy rains they cannot push water to the Des Plaines River at a sufficient rate.

Public Works Director Sean Dorsey said the report will analyze the existing drainage systems tributary to the pump stations and the stations' capability. It will also recommend improvements that could prevent flooding.

Dorsey said Mount Prospect, Prospect Heights and the Army Corps of Engineers are already considering several options to increase the pump stations' capacity.

"Some of the assumptions that were made in the design of the two pump stations in particular that we are responsible for maintaining are a little bit faulty," Dorsey said.

Although new pumps could provide a part of the solution, Dorsey said there is a larger issue.

"It is abundantly clear that some level of improvement to the village-owned storm sewer system on our side - the land side of the levee - will require some kind of modification or improvement so we can get water to any new pumps faster."

Mayor Arlene Juracek said the problem is more complex than "just putting bigger pumps on the wall."

"It's clearly a very complex watershed," she added, "and this study will help us to understand the waterflows, the timing of the waterflows and how to mitigate the impacts, both upstream and downstream."