LEWISTON — A summer that saw two heavy rainstorms hit the area has residents again questioning town officials on what can be done about consistent flooding.
“My yard becomes a lake,” said Nancy Dearing, who has asked for help for her Hillview Court home since 1989, as she said she gets the brunt of flooding on her street. “Every time we get a heavy rain or downpour, a deluge of water flows down the escarpment across a portion of Creek Road extension just east of Hillview and continues to pour down mostly my side of Hillview.”
Five residents from both the town and village spent nearly an hour of Monday’s meeting venting their frustrations over how stormwater and sewage flooding has been an issue. Town Supervisor Steve Broderick did not enforce time limits during the public comment portion.
More than five inches of rain fell over a four-hour period the night of July 27, with another heavy deluge the first weekend of August dropping five inches of rain in some parts of the county. Town wastewater treatment plant administrator Jeff Ritter said that Lewiston received 10 inches of rain over five days, equivalent to about eight feet of snow.
“When we have flooding issues, there is no way to keep water out of the sanitary sewer,” Ritter said, which has been an ongoing issue when neighborhoods have flooded. “It will get into low-lying sewers.”
This year, Lewiston has had a reported 46.09 inches of rain as of Aug. 25, more than double the yearly average to date of 22.21 inches and more than the county’s reported precipitation total of 38.26 inches.
“The financial damage I have suffered now exceeds what I originally paid for my home,” said Linda Scalzo, whose Creek Road home had flooding problems for more than 20 years, with this latest round resulting in the cleanup of raw sewage. “Even after extensive cleaning, I still have to question if my home is truly safe. Every weather forecast now causes anxiety.”
Tim Henderson, a village resident who was a wastewater treatment plant operator for nearly 30 years, said he had been there during instances where its flow was over 12 million gallons of water, well above its capacity on a regular day. Clayton Miller instead recommended that the town seek out a company with no local connections to help correct these problems, saying there have been more than 2,100 instances of flooding being brought up at town meetings since 2008.
A Change.org petition started by Lower River Road resident Sharon Bland to address flooding issues across Niagara County has 143 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon. She has between $7,000 and $15,000 worth of damage and did not get any help for flooding back in February.
“Before one penny gets spent on additional departments and personnel and equipment, we want town meetings,” Bland said, also telling town officials about state grant programs that help towns and homeowners in situations like this. “We want accountability. We want to have these conversations because there are many, many, many people affected. We want no more band-aids.”
The town has previously approved a backflow preventer grant program that would reimburse residents $2,000 for installing one in their home, which Broderick said was an easy solution for some low-hanging fruit. New sewer and stormwater lines have since been installed in some neighborhoods in the past two years, while others needed unclogging.
He noted that when he went to see flooded homes with highway department employees, they found some sump pumps were not connected to the stormwater infrastructure or to pipes that were clogged.
“The town is a phone call away,” Broderick said. “We’ve gone in and we’ve actually helped not physically, but with some suggestions that have actually helped people out.”
Among the various areas where residents raised concerns, the town board took action in a neighborhood near Lewiston Kiwanis Park and Seneca Hickory Stick Golf Course. It approved a motion requesting the engineering firm GHD to investigate the drainage issues for Stacy and Raymond Drive and Perry, Sarah, and Lauren courts. Their effort would include a topographic and boundary survey, a stormwater modeling concept, and a final design for the stormwater infrastructure improvements.
County Legislators Michael Casale and Irene Myers, whose districts include different Lewiston areas, were also in attendance. Casale, whose Lewiston house also flooded during the rainstorms, said they would meet with Infrastructure and Facilities Chairman Shawn Foti about how they can lend support to this effort. Village of Lewiston Mayor Dan Cota
“We need all the towns to work together,” Casale said, offering to help with any applications to the state DEC. “We need to work with (Niagara County Soil and Water Conservation District).”