Elk Grove Village flooding summit delayed

Elk Grove Village's proposal for a regional Salt Creek flooding summit is on hold pending talks with local officials, who're working on a solution that would prevent creek overflow.

Conversations about how to handle flooding of the Des Plaines River tributary have been going so well an agreement is likely in the near future, Elk Grove Village Mayor Craig Johnson said Monday.

The village has been working with environmentalists, who had been concerned about how damming up the creek would affect the surrounding ecosystem, he said.

Now, it appears the groups are making headway toward an answer, Johnson said. He hopes in the coming weeks that answer would be made public. Until then, the summit is on hold.

After near-record rainfall has caused flooding last month, Johnson had called for a summit with other towns including Wood Dale, Itasca and Addison that are along the creek. Local legislators would've been invited as well.

The purpose of the summit was to apply pressure on local agencies to find a flooding solution, which has been talked about but never implemented.

About five years ago, there had been a discussion of installing a rubber bladder on a Salt Creek dam in Busse Woods, which is managed by the Cook County Forest Preserve.

The idea was to inflate the bladder during peak rainstorms, which would prevent flooding downstream. Johnson had wanted the summit to help speed along the process of obtaining some type of solution, like the bladder.

There had been opposition to the bladder by environmental groups because the free-standing water created by the dam might hurt trees around the bladder.

The summit idea was spurred by two days of significant rainfall, starting Sept 12. Almost 9 inches of rain fell in the village. The village record was 12 inches, which fell in a few days in 1987.

During the most recent rains, schools - including Grove Junior High, Queen of the Rosary and Hattendorf Preschool - were closed on the following Monday. Elk Grove High School athletic fields also were flooded, as were the Elk Grove Park District athletic fields and Rainbow Falls Water Park.

One of the village's main roads, Devon Avenue, was closed along portions where it crossed the Salt Creek, officials said.