An often-flooded area near Oxford and Morningside drives may get some improvements to the storm water system.
Emporia city commissioners asked City Engineer Keith Beatty on Wednesday to look at the cost of an upgrade. Chuck Hanna, a long-time resident of the neighborhood, said there has been an overflow problem for 30 years but that the flooding has been especially severe in recent years.
Hanna showed commissioners of his backyard after one flood, with a pool of water stretching about 30 yards away. A lot of water has also ended up in his garage and carpeted basement, he said.
"All this accumulation of water comes down and it can't get away," he said.
Beatty said that that part of the storm water system drains a 33-acre area.. Usually, he said, it would take a 50-year flood to cause significant overflow, but depending on the situation a lesser rainfall could do it.
"It may be less than that because of the hydraulics of the situation," Beatty said. "You're going to have debris, you're going to have twigs, you're going to have things you can't take care of on a regular basis."
One solution, he said, might be to replace the existing setup with a box culvert, a four-sided drainage structure with a square or rectangular opening. While effective, it's also not cheap.
"You're not talking a $30,000 fix," Beatty said. "When we worked on a box by Sacred Heart School, it was $70,000 to do that."
Public Works Director Ron Childers suggested running a video camera through the storm sewers to see if any areas were blocked, an idea the commission agreed with.
Beatty said that the area around 18th Avenue and Holiday Drive also had flooding issues and needed some attention.
Interim City Manager Mark McAnarney said the commission would take a closer look at the Morningside storm water project once it had a better idea of the costs involved.
]"It's like a lot of things," McAnarney said. "If it's $10,000, you look on it a lot differently than if it's $100,000."