Batavia still looking for answers to September's flooding problems

September's floods are still on Batavia city officials' minds.

What caused the Crestview Meadows subdivision near Braeburn Marsh to take on so much water? Why did sewage come up in basement drains in an east-side neighborhood?

And what can the city do to prevent a repeat?

Those were the questions this week when the city council's city services committee received an update on issues raised by residents after the floods.

Braeburn Marsh "is not working like it is supposed to. ... I'm baffled," said Ald. Jim Volk, chairman of the committee.

The city designed the marsh to handle 25 percent more stormwater than was ever expected, even taking into account the building of a Wal-Mart nearby, Volk said.

He now wonders if a drain tile in the marsh is broken, if beavers may have built a dam somewhere in it or if there is more stormwater runoff coming from further north, in Geneva, than anticipated.

"Something that struck me was people saying the water came up so fast," Volk said.

The city engineer is reviewing a 1996 engineering report that dealt with flood issues throughout Batavia, including the marsh. The study, created after the city received 14 inches of rain in less than 24 hours in July 1996, led to several million dollars in stormwater drainage work.

Over at Pine Street and Kirk Road, residents had sanitary sewage backing up in their basements, something that hadn't happened before, Volk said. If people have illegally connected sump pump discharge lines to the sanitary system, they may have overwhelmed the sanitary system, especially if the sanitary pipes are clogged by tree roots.

Further south, near the Aurora border, a detention basin overflowed. Grates along Kirk Road in the Aurora section also became clogged with debris, contributing to flooding of the roadway and its closure.

Aurora is considering a different grate design, and Batavia is examining whether the basin needs to be dredged.

Batavia residents and business customers will be asked in their November utility bills to fill out a survey regarding their experience with flooding during the Sept. 13-14 rains.

"If we don't know it, we can't fix it," Volk said.

He hopes to have all flood-related problems identified, and solutions proposed, by the end of December.

"We still have more questions than answers," he said.