Not again in my back yard

Overflowing stormwater basin creates a flood of problems for Kalispell woman

Judy Perry's latest headache: Groundwater seeped into her basement a couple of weeks ago. This was a new glitch that apparently has come from a filled-up 1 1/2-year-old stormwater basin built next to her Beargrass Lane back yard in southeastern Kalispell.

That 130,000-gallon basin has flooded Perry's back yard five times since mid-2005.

Perry, a 56-year-old widow, is frustrated.

"It getting to the point of: 'Where do you turn?'" Perry said.

A friend, Richard Hader, said, "It's just the stress on her all the time because nothing is being done. … They've known about this since last June."

Various city, state and construction officials agree that the basin has caused the backyard flooding. But fix-it measures have been tortoiselike. It might not happen until spring.

"We've got to help her," said engineer Bob Stauffer of Schwarz Architecture and Engineering Inc., which designed the water basin.

And this particular flooding is a symptom of a bigger problem that sometimes pops up across Kalispell - moving construction dirt in new subdivisions can change an area's drainage from what it was when the city approved the development plans.

Perry and her husband moved into the neighborhood in early 2001, making their home in the second house in the area. At that time, the land around their property was flat, she said.

As time passed, the Leisure Heights subdivision sprouted up to the north and east.

Drainage studies were conducted and reviewed by the city and state. That led to the stormwater catch basin being dug out a few feet north of Perry's backyard fence in late 2004. The basin is on a slight west-to-east slope, its top ranges between 2 and 4 1/2 feet above Perry's back yard, maybe 6 feet away.

Perry's husband complained to the city government about the basin, but it stayed.

He died in May 2005, and his wife left town for a while to stay with their children. When she returned last summer, she found much of her back yard under water. Between last summer and mid-January, Perry's back yard has been flooded five times - once at least 1 foot deep. "I was walking through water," she said

Perry complained to the city and Schwarz Engineering several times. Occasionally, city and Schwarz officials showed up at the basin, studying it. Once, a backhoe worked on the basin, but it chopped a hole - since filled back in -in the side. That sent water into a drainage ditch along Willow Glen Drive, which stretches along the west side of Perry's back yard, flooding her property again.

Her insurance won't cover water damage.

The water basin was designed to hold water runoff until it soaks into the ground and also for specific worst-case scenarios, Stauffer said. It was not intended to be a long-term storage basin.

However, rains and snows in the past several months have been unusually heavy, exceeding those formulaic worst-case scenarios and causing the basin to overflow, Stauffer said. The flooding is compounded by Perry's yard being slightly downhill from the built-up basin.

Also, the overflowing water seeps into the Willow Glen Drive drainage ditch. But debris accumulated in the ditch blocks much of the water flowing through it, rerouting that water into Perry's yard, he said.

Schwarz's fix-it plan is to build a berm between the basin and Perry's backyard fence as a dam, and to clear the debris from the roadside drainage ditch so the water will go straight through.

One immediate hurdle to the plan is that the ground is frozen, officials said.

Another problem is that Willow Glenn Drive and the drainage ditch are on a state-owned right-of-way. That means complicated talks among the city, state and Schwarz to address legal hurdles and responsibilities.

Charity Watt Levis, a Montana Department of Transportation spokeswoman, said the state would try to help.

The flooding in Perry's yard highlights a bigger problem that Kalispell residents sometimes face.

The city government will approve a drainage plan for new subdivisions, but the drainage situation might change after construction begins and city officials are out of the picture, said Jim Hansz, city Public Works director.

That's because as houses are built, dirt is piled and moved, and piled and moved again - changing the topography of the neighborhood and how water drains, Hansz said. This scenario could be possible with Leisure Heights' development and Perry's house, he said.

Today, much of Leisure Heights is uphill from Perry's house, which used to be in a level field.

City officials are brainstorming on how to deal with such scenarios, Hansz said. No timetable exists for presenting a proposal to the Kalispell City Council.

Hansz said the city will help Schwarz and the state work out the legal situation. "We'll make sure the engineers don't let it slip between the cracks," he said.

However, Perry is cynical - having talked to many officials off and on for several months, and still seeing her yard periodically flooded.

"They keep passing [responsibility] on to the next guy," Perry said.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com