DuPage Dist. 1 candidates share ideas to ease flooding

Both candidates vying for the District 1 seat on the DuPage County Board offer different approaches to alleviate flooding in areas pummeled by heavy rains last July.

District 1 covers all or parts of Itasca, Wood Dale, Villa Park, Bensenville, Elmhurst, Addison and Lombard. The latter three towns were among those hit hardest this summer, swaying President Obama to declare DuPage County a federal disaster area.

Democrat Kathryn Salzano, a language teacher from Elmhurst, said she believes flooding could be mitigated by a combination of infrastructure upgrades and better cooperation between municipalities.

“Municipalities have their own separate systems and I think sometimes they are just shoving water at each other and it doesn't know where to go,” she said. “We need to be making sure we have a coordinated effort.”

Incumbent Republican Donald Puchalski, an attorney from Addison, said the county stormwater department is proactive, and county leaders have helped alleviate flooding by funding infrastructure improvements for decades.

In the early 1990s, roughly $100 million was spent to alleviate flood concerns surrounding Salt Creek on the county's east end. This included buying a $41 million stone quarry in Elmhurst that continues to mitigate flooding. This quarry, along with the Louis' Reservoir, and Wood Dale-Itasca quarry all which have received improvements in the last 25 years together hold more than 3.3 billion gallons of water.

Puchalski agrees flooding is still a major problem,

“There are people who bought homes in a floodplain and we are trying to alleviate that, but there are only so many dollars,” he said.

This is why he suggests the county should team up with the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County to help.

“I think the forest preserve needs to be more active,” Puchalski said. “They have $200 million in reserves, which is a nice amount, and it seems like they might be someone we could partner up with. The forest preserve should be working with us to purchase these properties and making it open space.”