Stormwater Commission

STORMWATER COMMISSION MEETING SUMMARY Monday, March 19, 2012 The following persons were present: Steven Vinezeano, Andrew Vitale, Richard Wlodarski, Fred Kudert, Tom Polcyn, Chuck Ostman, Mousa Nazzal, Robert Callero, George Van Geem Scott Jochim and Pat Lach and Jeff Wickenkamp of Hey and Associates. Also in attendance was Eric Duray of ComEd. Absent: Chair Joe Lo Verde The meeting was called to order at Noon. 1. Approve Meeting Summary of Thursday, March 8, 2012: The summary was approved to be posted on the Stormwater Commission web page. 2. Old Business: a. Trustee Przybylo Request. In preparation for the meeting, Andrew Vitale created a map showing reported flooding from September 2008 and July 2011. Eric Duray presented information on ComEd outages in the last two rain storms (September 2008 and July 2011). Was there a correlation between power outages and flooding reported? He reviewed the 2008 event first. The area with 164 to 2,413 minutes of outage was at one circuit with about 100 customers. The circuit was C7226. It was discussed that a ComEd transformer at 8314 Lincoln Avenue was submerged under water in 2008. The resident stated that just before the power went out, the transformer popped. The Commission confirmed that the only long-term outage in 2008 rain was in the Niles area bordering Greenwood, Stolting, Nor Terrace and Western. At the time shortly after the storm, ComEd stated that the Village would have to pay to lift the transformer because of the property built up around it. The other option would be to have all that was built up around the transformer removed. The Commission asked Eric to have ComEd review this situation again in an effort to prevent outages in this area in the future due to the transformer being submerged. Vinezeano stated that, unlike in 2008, the Village can now show with engineering data that the area is a low point. He stated he would look into the possibility. Fred was interested in ComEd’s ability to give frequency data of outages lasting two hours or more. If we know there is an area that is impacted more often by outages and assessable to flooding, ComEd will work to focus on it. In 2009, the average was one outage per customer for 120 minutes and the goal of ComEd is to reduce this by 20%. Most outages in Niles are not weather related. The Mayor asked if ComEd could provide data for areas on outages and Eric stated that with the current system it is feeder based and since working with the NWMC on some annual report changes, starting in 2012 the report will provide a better form of the data. Currently he can only key on one circuit. The Mayor asked Eric if ComEd can give the Village the areas with the most outages in the past three years. Eric stated he can if he has addresses. Maybe give him those addresses with flooding concerns and he can tie it back to the outages. Jeff commented that if we had a map with flood occurrences (which we have for 2008 and 2011 storms) and ComEd had addresses by event and then we superimpose them and out of 700 complaints, there may be 30 that lost power. That would show that power loss is not the key reason homes are flooding in Niles. Parameters for information are homes with over 2 hours per occurrence and three occurrences per year. Van Geem asked how past performance has any bearing on future power events. You can’t determine what will happen in the next five years. With mechanical improvements, you can get about a 20% increase in reliability, but you can’t stop weather or accidents that cause outages. How many generators would need to be purchased to solve the floods caused? Eric asked if it is because the power is out or flooding inundation. Eric stated that generators are the least desirable situation. You want to work with the utility to fix the problem of outages if they happen that often. A generator, from the utilities perspective, could be helpful in a bad storm with a long duration such as the one in July of 2011. Vinezeano opened discussion on the ComEd transformer in the corner of 8314 Lincoln. The transformer failed in 2008 taking out the power in the area for an extended time. Vinezeano put up a picture of the transformer in question. Jeff made a comment regarding a statement made by Eric regarding the mission of ComEd and the importance of reliable power. If this transformer is underwater due to weather related events, it should be ComEd’s responsibility to fix it. Eric stated that there are times when homeowners may be running a business from their home and they need uninterrupted service and so they choose to protect their livelihood. What is an expectable period they can be without power? How many times will there  be outages like the one in 2011? A generator should be a last resort. Work with the utility where there are a large number of power outages. Is there a correlation with equipment that is failing often? Maybe some people flood because they lose power, but overlaying the outages with the flooding data you will see most persons flood due to the inadequate sewers and not power outages. Maybe some flood for that reason, but the large majority does not. Is it an ad on contributor or the main contributor? b. Review of Open House Layout. Vinezeano discussed the layout with the group to ensure everyone was aware of their responsibilities during the open house. 3. New Business: a. Project Prioritization. Jeff and Pat from Hey and Associates began discussion about the recommended prioritization of projects based on the $15M. There are two tiers. An implementation schedule was distributed showing the tier one and tier two projects. Tier One – 1 to 5 years by priority. i. Cleveland Relief Sewer $6.9M; ii. Milwaukee and Main to Lee, Storage and Sewer Improvements $5M; and iii. Storage and Conveyance Improvements West of Maryhill Cemetery $3.1M. Tier Two – (TBD and not prioritized) i. Maynard and Glendale Sewer Improvements with ComEd Storage $4.5M; ii. Maryland/Milwaukee Improvements $5.5M; iii. Milwaukee/Courtland Improvements $3.5M; iv. Milwaukee and Touhy Structure Reconstruction $200K; v. Oakton and Seward $1.7M; and vi. Dobson Outfall $1.3M. Jeff stated that there was a 25% contingency in the numbers shown on the schedule. The cost share program and other ancillary projects will need to come out of the proposed $15M. The Mayor asked if any of the north or south projects made it into the Tier One projects. The Callero Drive backflow preventer did make it, but it will be pulled out as a small project. Jeff stated the reason the Maynard and Glendale project was at the top of Tier Two and not in Tier One was due to the $4.5M price tag. However, when it is done could depend on if Glenview participates or there is grant funding for an inter-jurisdictional project such as this. Glenview’s flooding due to this area is much worse than that of Niles and they may move ahead with it. This project could potentially be pushed into Tier One. Jeff stated the Milwaukee and Touhy Structure Reconstruction project could also be a shared situation due to a benefit to Chicago. Chicago has already researched the project. Jochim stated that in the beginning of the study, flooding in streets was not set as a priority, so why would the Glendale area be prioritized to Tier One? The Commission agreed that the complaints in the area were mostly due to flooded streets, but that when it gets deep enough and flooding moves to the yards, the sump pumps cannot keep up and that can cause flooding through the pits. Wouldn’t it be cheaper for those residents to increase the capacity of their sump pumps? Jochim asked about the Maryhill Cemetery project and whether or not it should be pushed further up on the Tier One list. It was explained by Jeff that the Village could try to tackle all the projects at once, but that it is a lot of balls in the air to be joggling. Someone on Village staff is going to need to be on the ball managing the projects and be working very diligently to move the projects forward. The Maryland and Milwaukee project was discussed briefly. Jeff wanted to leave the meeting with a good idea of the projects and priorities before the open house. He mentioned that when a resident from the Cortland area comes to the open house and sees that they are in the Tier Two project area, they will be told there is a project, but right now it is not programmed because it is not a high priority project. There are more important projects and there is only $15M. George asked if we can break out the number of homes helped per project. He continued that it is important to show we are helping more homes with the priority projects. Jeff stated they have that. There was discussion that it could be addressed in a percentage of homes in stead of a cost per home. The Chair has established early on that this is a community issue and we didn’t need to discuss per home cost. Jeff stated that Hey and Associates mostly planned on informing participants at the open house that the recommendations were made based on places with the most frequent and adverse flooding with the highest number of homes. Jochim asked about the Cleveland Relief Sewer project. Will it help lake Monroe? Yes. They will be shown the current flooding vs. flooding levels after the project is in place. This will help with flooding, but it will not make streets “bone” dry in most cases. It will cut down on flooding. They will see that in 50- to 100-year rains, there will still be some flooding, just not as much and not as damaging as in the past. Jeff asked what the company line will be about the Tier One/Tier Two projects. Why? The cost and frequency of flooding and the issues are severe enough that we developed a project, just that there are other areas in the Village that are worse and we need to focus on them with the initial funds first. We developed all the projects and then came up with a subset of all the ones that address most frequent and the highest numbers of floods. The most frequent and sever flooding with the highest number of homes helped by the projects. Future boards will most likely need to make a decision on when Tier Two projects can be funded. The Mayor stated the importance of providing information at the event regarding the time it will take for Tier One and Tier Two projects to be completed. Jeff stated that these projects will take years to design and permit and years of multiple phases to construct because they are long and big. Most will take several years from start to finish. Jochim recommended increasing the amount of years for implementation. There was discussion on how to show the projects on a map. It was decided that it could be done with a large map of the Village with the Tier One and Tier Two projects in blue and green. The amount of the Tiers would be included. Tier One is $15M and Tier Two is $17M. Cost share is included in these numbers. The Mayor reiterated the top goals of the Commission. First it is to get the sewer water (sewage) out of the basements. Next it is to keep the overland out of the doors and windows. Reducing stormwater in the streets cannot be a goal at this time. Jeff stated that it is probably more important to prevent the water from coming in doors and windows overland. There are concerns about street flooding and emergency vehicles. Vinezeano reminded the group about the Emergency Vehicle Flood Map to be shared with the Fire Department. This will allow the department to develop a contingency plan for areas that are flooded past the wheel base of emergency vehicles. Based on his discussions with the Fire Chief, this is a good strategy. The Fire Chief stated that he is not concerned about his department’s ability to get into flooded areas and treat patients. Terrace Square Condos was brought up regarding flooding in the parking lot. This will need to be investigated further, but was not initially placed in the phase two study because of the lack of flood calls reported from the area. The area just West of Golf Mill was discussed briefly. The Commission did mention the one property owner on Western who floods and how he would be covered under the flood control program if it is implemented. He is on a private sewer that belongs to a group of unincorporated homes. There was discussion about the Cleveland relief sewer project. Ostman asked whether or not it will prevent sewer backup. Jeff stated that it will have a tremendous impact on the backups in the area, but you can never prevent sewer backup without some form of flood control. Cleveland is a new storm sewer that will be added next to the combined sewer. All of the street catch basins will be tied to the storm sewer and removed from the combined sewer. Hey put the project on the screen for discussion and clarification. Ostman wanted to make sure everyone was clear that even with the Cleveland sewer that will greatly reduce backups, protection with overhead sewers or backflow preventers is still necessary to eliminate backups entirely. The Commission reviewed the remainder of the projects being proposed for Tier One and Tier Two. The Commission agreed that the projects in Tier One were chosen by the engineers correctly. The Callero Dr. Backflow Prevention was removed, however, as a smaller project. The Tier Two projects remained unchanged. There was a brief discussion about how this open house was promoted. Vinezeano stated that the same method was used as in the past, which was articles in the local papers, an article in the Village newsletter, and a message on the Police sign. This year Niles TV was also used to promote the event. In the past, over 200 showed, but it was mentioned that there was flooding just days before the event. 4. Open Discussion: a. Trustee Preston request for additional information. Vinezeano shared the information collected from the other municipalities recently for Trustee Preston. She wanted to know the first program year, how long it was to be budgeted, and how it was funded. Morton Grove was added to the list for their Overhead Sewer and Flood Control Device Assistance Program. They use a loan program for 50% of the cost of the project up to a maximum of $2.5k. Mt. Prospect also uses a “loan” program. The funds for Mt. Prospect come from their over 50 population CDBG HUD funds. They have a loan up to $25k and began in the 1980s. Morton Grove was added to the list for their 2011 loan program with a max of $2.5k and an annual budget of $50k. This program is for low to moderate income. Jochim stated that this is not the first time the Village had a stormwater related program. In the 1970s, we paid for homeowners to disconnect downspouts and take sump pumps out of sewers. Vinezeano shared the possibility of having the “cost share” program changed to “flood assistance” since it could be in the form of a grant or loan at some point. b. Illinois “IKE” Disaster Recovery Grant. Vinezeano shared an update on the IKE Housing Rehabilitation and Reconstruction grant. The Village identified nine owner-occupied homes that qualified for up to $45k per home in improvements. Ostman asked if these funds helped to stop the flooding or just brought the homes back to pre flood conditions. Vinezeano stated that the funds do not provide for overhead sewer or flood control, which he believes it should. c. IAFSM Annual Conference. Jeff mentioned the recent presentation on stormwater given by Hey and Associates and Assistant Village Manager Vinezeano. The presentation was on 2D modeling. Vinezeano provided a history of Niles and the Stormwater Commission and Hey presented how the 2D modeling will help to solve problems. 5. Next Scheduled Meetings: TBD