Wheaton continues study of Briarcliffe flooding

An engineering firm will begin surveying a Wheaton neighborhood where flooding damaged homes three years ago.

Consultants will visit about 50 homes in a subdivision east of Briarcliffe Boulevard and assess lower levels susceptible to flooding, Wheaton Engineering Director Paul Redman said. The city could use the data in a bid for federal funding to cover costs of a possible project to divert floods away from homes in the wake of severe storms.

Neighbors have been appealing to the city for a solution for years. About five months after April 2013 storms left their basements under water, the city commissioned a study by Rosemont-based Christopher B. Burke Engineering into conceptual proposals to alleviate flooding.

The results of that inquiry have led the city to take a closer look at building a major storm sewer system that would divert runoff from a lake in the subdivision into a channel at the end of Windsor Drive. From there, the water would eventually spill into Rice Lake on DuPage County Forest Preserve District land. The firm also estimated the cost of installing such a system at roughly $10 million to $12 million. Neither the city nor the forest preserve district has signed off on the project. And Redman told the city council this week that officials are "a number of years away from breaking ground on a project of this size."

Still, the city is taking the first steps toward applying for Federal Emergency Management Agency grants.

Redman, the longtime head of the city's engineering department, says he's not aware of a previous request for FEMA aid.

"It's time-consuming, and there's some expense just to get the data," Redman said.

The city council this week hired Burke to collect data that could later help FEMA determine how properties would benefit from the project, should Wheaton decide to apply. The city has given the firm two months to complete the study, but it may take longer to get permission from residents to access areas of their homes. The firm has not yet scheduled the visits.

The existing storm sewer system dates to the late 1960s or early 1970s, when the area on Wheaton's southeast side was developed.

During typical rains, most water is contained in the so-called lake No. 4 and drains through the sewer system underground.

But during particularly intense storms, Redman said, the undersized system doesn't drain fast enough to prevent flooding above ground.

In the current fiscal year, the city has budgeted about $300,000 to study flood-prone areas. The Briarcliffe subdivision is the largest.