Storm water runoff hits neighbors — again

You’ll have to forgive Melissa Miller if she sounds aggravated these days.

When heavy rains hit at the end of January, floodwaters filled the disabled grandmother’s yard and rose almost up to the bottom sash of her bathroom window in Roanoke. It was the umpteenth time in the 46 years she’s lived in her home that this has happened.

Miller and her 5-year-old grandson, Daymien, spent that night with a friend in Vinton. They fled right after she called 911 and begged operators to have the fire department shut off electricity to her house, so it wouldn’t burn up from a short.

Once she returned, she found out a firefighter had reported her for hoarding, because she had piles of family possessions in her yard and house. Flurries of desperate and angry phone calls to Roanoke city hall elicited only more vague and unsatisfying promises. Miller has heard them before.

Meanwhile, the green mold grows higher and higher on the siding of her ramshackle bungalow. Now, it’s up to her electric meter. Next door, it looks dangerous to walk in neighbor Krista Conner’s yard. The ground is dotted with small sinkholes, most likely from a collapsing drainage system installed there decades ago.

Conner took more than a foot of water in her finished basement during the last storm. You can see the high-water mark on its paneled walls. The dried mud is everywhere and so is a dank stench.

They are No. 21 on the city of Roanoke’s prioritized list of 200 storm water projects. And what they’ve been told amounts to “don’t hold your breath” waiting for a fix.

“They say it could take one year, they say it might be another 15 years before I’m first on this list,” Miller told me angrily. “It’s taken Roanoke city 30 years to do nothing.”

The two women live in the oldest and lowest-lying houses along Narrows Lane, a short, easy-to-overlook residential strip tucked into the city’s southern edge. It’s up the street a little ways behind Outback Steakhouse on U.S. 220, near a quarry operation Miller and Conner blame their plight on.

It seems hard to believe, but the flooding on their end of the street used to be worse, Miller told me. Then about 10 or so years ago the city ordered Rockydale Quarries to enlarge a storm water retention pond at the top of the street as a part of some other site improvements.

That works OK, Miller said, except when the pond overflows. Then, it’s a waterlogged nightmare. Muddy water streams down Narrows Lane and lands on Conner’s and Miller’s homes.

“You know it’s the water from the pond, because it’s muddy water,” Conner told me. “It’s the only muddy water around here.”

“If I lived next to a river, it would be one thing,” Miller said. “I’d expect it. But there’s no river around here.”

Conner’s place was the home of her grandparents. For the last five years it’s been owned by her mother, Susan Conner, who lives in Bedford County. It’s impossible to sell because of the water issue, Susan Conner said.

“In the last five years, I’d say it’s flooded three times,” Susan Conner told me. She’s repeatedly called city hall, and she’s spoken to an official at Rockydale Quarries.

“I told him that it was his responsibility because his catch pond isn’t big enough to handle the water that’s coming down,” she said. He replied, “ ‘Well, I think the pond is big enough.’ ” The quarry’s insurance company has rebuffed her damage claims, she said.

Ken Randolph , president of Rockydale Quarries, said he feels for the women. But “the flooding is not caused by the overflow,” he said. Rather, Miller’s “house is built in a drainage ditch.” It’s surrounded by other steep slopes, atop which Summit Hills apartments and the Pheasant Ridge retirement community stand.

Also, neighbors up the street filled in a ditch to extend their yard, Randolph added. That’s caused the problems for Conner and Miller.

In pursuing this story, I spoke to City Manager Chris Morrill and City Engineer Phil Schirmer. Both acknowledged there’s a big storm water issue on Narrows Lane. It’s a job that’s likely to cost $200,000 or more to correct.

The bigger problem, they said, is there are similar and in many cases worse storm water issues all over Roanoke. And the pot of money to fix them is miniscule compared with the need.

“There are several areas in the city where we’ve had flooding for decades,” Morrill said. “Right now there’s a list of 200 areas in the city that need drainage work.” The total cost of those projects is estimated at more than $70 million.

Four years ago, for the first time ever, the city council appropriated $1.12 million in its capital project budget for storm drain work, Morrill noted. In the current capital budget, the city managed to double that with matching funds from the Virginia Department of Transportation. But $2.25 million is still peanuts compared with the list of projects.

In January, the city council embraced the concept, though not the exact details, of a monthly storm water fee. Conceivably, that could cost homeowners $3 monthly and commercial property owners more, depending on the size of their properties. The latter has caused some controversy and grumbling. The city administration is working on the proposal.

The fee would bring in about $3 million more each year for storm water improvements.

The fix for Narrows Lane will require the installation of about 450 feet of 42-inch pipe to replace the failing and undersized pipes there now, Schirmer said.

Both he and Morrill said 2016 is a more realistic time frame to get under way on the work necessary along Narrows Lane, under current funding.

Both of them said if the storm water fee is approved, the city would be more likely to tackle the job sooner.

And both of them acknowledged if they lived in Miller’s house, they would consider it the No. 1 priority, too. But right now, there are 20 other locations where the problem is worse and affects more people.

The scoring system for prioritizing the projects looks at health and safety, the number of properties affected, the type of damage caused and the economic impact.

“Of course [Miller] wants to be number one,” Morrill said. “I understand.”

But “it’s a very thoughtful approach to scoring these,” he added. “There’s some flooding where it’s not just two houses impacted, but where five house are.”

Dan Casey’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

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