Flood - Photos 2008 and 2013 - Drainage vs Retention - Smoke and Mirrors?

If you want to jump to the chase, scroll down  to the photos. Otherwise, read on.

Retention, Detention, Wetlands and "Smoke and Mirrors"
Solving problems of this type requires looking at specifics, asking the right questions and getting specific answers to those questions.

There's more to the photos in this post than meets the eye. Here's a question to be answered. Were the 2011-2012 permits for pond 9 to be an increase in retention, or a replacement for other retention areas paved over by the college?  The photos of 2008 indicate a large existing area which provided service as a "retention/detention area" in 2008. With the construction changes on the campus how much detention/retention was actually added via the 2011-2012 construction? In particular, west of Lambert Road. If none or little was added then the "new" pond 9 may be "smoke and mirrors." It may be inadequate.

Some of the neighbors have noticed that some areas that were previously flooded were not on April 18. Other areas that weren't are now flooded or seem to be more flooded. What's going on?

Here's a third question to be answered. The most recent National Wetlands Inventory indicates that the area adjacent to the newly constructed COD pond 9 is a wetland. In 2008 it was a practice soccer field which provided both detention and retention; it was not a wetland. Is this a replacement for other wetland areas paved over or used by the college? Was this retention/detention area relabeled as "wetland" with no real or appreciable area gain and for the sole purpose of meeting some Federal "wetland" requirement? If a wetland label was applied to an area that formerly served as detention/retention that would imply that somewhere else on campus wetland was lost, and those areas usually retain water. That implies a reduction in detention/retention area. Looking at COD, it's apparent that these areas can't simply be moved without upsetting drainage patterns. After all, large areas to the south of the campus have flooded repeatedly.

Are these important questions? Yes, they are. Removing wetlands and detention/retention areas, replacing them with asphalt and sewers and then relabeling existing areas which previously served as retention/detention is a sham.

Reducing retention or detention areas will contribute to downstream flooding.

The final questions are these. Are the retention/detention areas of lakes 3 and 4 the same as they were in 1996? How much silt has been added to these lakes? Should Lake #3 be larger to relieve downstream flooding? If Lake #3 were substantially larger, could it alleviate the overtopping of that lake and would the flooding of areas south of COD be reduced? This and other questions will be looked at in an exploration of solutions in a future post.

What's Missing?
Before continuing to the photos, I will state the obvious. One of the things to be done to succeed is to determine what's missing and do that. I think residents in the area want a cohesive and broader look at the entire problem of flooding. One of the things that has been missing is a demand to solve the problem.

"Cohesive and broader" requires the involvement of all parties. It requires commitment and a willingness to get this done. What we have here is a classical turf war with a college which has grand plans but is geographically constrained and will use every taxpayer dollar it can raise to manicure or build on every available square inch of the property. It includes a Village which has ignored this problem for decades, a County which has only recently become involved and is a question mark, and the City of Wheaton which is now the center of attention. In the game of "duck and cover" having Wheaton take center stage works for everyone else.

Gee, this is the way it must have been in medieval Europe, with fiefdoms and duchies. Didn't that time include the period referred to as the "Dark Ages?"

The geography and measurements are easy. It includes the current capacity of lakes 3, 4 and the COD property west of Lambert, which includes the emerging wetland called pond 7 and pond 9. It includes the surface areas involved as well as an analysis of current retention and the necessary retention for the area in a "1%" and "2%" rainfall. Note that I said "for the area." That's what's been missing. A comprehensive study should include the entire COD campus and the Willoway Brook Drainage Basin; those portions that drain into Pond 7 and Lake 4 at the very least. That area includes portions of Wheaton, Glen Ellyn and the College of DuPage. As I said earlier, why shouldn't COD be retaining all of its runoff? The quick answer as to why it isn't doing so is this; periodic downstream flooding is acceptable for the college and is someone else's problem! Apparently that's the predominant theme for some of the other players in this drama.

I suspect this area is more susceptible to flooding today than it was in the recent past. What's changed since 2008? However, the ultimate question isn't what wasn't done in the past, but what should be done in the present. The codes apparently don't require this and so the water and the excuses keep rolling downhill.

What seems to be missing is cooperation and balance. Paul Redman, Wheaton's Director of Engineering has stated that there is a "cost - benefit" to this, and it must be weighed. It should also be shared.  I'd like COD, Glen Ellyn, Wheaton and the County to get together to sort this out. After all, the 1.5 square miles that drain into this area is within those communities and the college.

Is this too much to ask for? That's entirely up to us. We don't have to accept a future which is a continuation of the past.  We can create a different future. Will we? Will we take the necessary actions?

Photos of the Western area of COD, Lake #4 and Brentwood Lane Sept. 2008
This post includes a few photos taken during the flooding of 2008 and April 2013 so you may compare. At the end of the post is an aerial view of the southwest corner of the campus and its practice fields as they existed in 2008 and "dry." The area in that final photo is immediately north of COD's Pond #7 emergent wetland. The area of these practice fields was at a lower elevation than BLMH and sloped toward the 7.59 acres of COD's pond #7 "emergent wetland."  In 2008 COD had acres of grassy areas which have since been eliminated by the college. Some of this earlier retention was replaced by the new pond 9.

This post will look at a few of the retention/detention areas on the campus that existed in 2008 and how they aided in flood abatement.

Background for flooding in 2008
In September 2008 Wheaton experienced a downpour of 5.27 inches, and the area experienced flooding. Others were affected and the adjacent city of Warrenville published this statement:  "In September 2008, a large storm occurred that caused unprecedented flooding in the City of Warrenville."   (Note 1).

I don't want to underestimate the gravity of 2008 when sandbagging behind Brentwood Lane halted the overtopping of COD's Pond #7. However, what occurred on Brentwood in 2008 was a trickle as compared to the flooding of 2013!

A Return to 2008
These photos indicate the aftermath of a rainstorm of 5.27 inches. Compare these photos to the videos and photos of the same area with 6.91 inches on April 18 and after a modified campus.

The photos of 2008 show extensive standing water on the western portion of the campus. Some of the water of the storm of 2008 was detained and retained in large practice fields. Water did continue to flow south and homeowners south of COD's Nature Study Area and Pond #7 were sandbagging to protect their homes from the water exiting COD's nature area, which can be seen in the background in this photo looking to the southeast. Flooding was contained on Brentwood Lane!

The following photo depicts the way this same area looked in 2012 during COD's construction. This is before the addition of  the CMC building. If you compare the backgrounds in this photo to the one above you'll see why I consider the attitude of the College to be unacceptable. You may also gain some understanding of why some of those in Wheaton and unincorporated Glen Ellyn say that "The College of DuPage is a bad neighbor."

Back in 2008 this area was a "nature center" while today it has become, in the parlance of the College of DuPage, the "service area" of the college. Some people use the term "service area" as a euphemism for their "dump." The college has since cleaned up this area and installed a grassy berm, and continues to work on this. We were told it was to "shield" our association. However, the college has now admitted that it had another purpose; that's for another post.

Some owners who had these views or are adjacent have seen their home values plummet up to 50% from where they were. Gee, could our College be a part of the problem?

Here's a view in 2008 looking northeast toward the "M" building from BLMH and the water on the campus. It is inundated with standing water. The final photo in this post indicates where the photographer was standing:

Here's the conditions at the south berm of Lake #4 during the flood of 2008; no overflow:

Meanwhile COD's soccer practice fields were under water, and draining slowly into COD's pond #7 which was flowing into the yards behind Brentwood Lane. The neighbors on Brentwood Lane managed this by sandbagging:

With sandbagging by the neighbors, COD's Pond #7 was contained behind Brentwood Lane. There was no overtopping of Wheaton's Lake #4. The flooding was minor, as you can see by the standing water in the photo (image title corrected):

What a difference another 1.6 inches of rainfall makes! That, combined with the capacity of Lake #3 and alterations on the campus probably contributed to the flooding of 2013. Here's the same area behind COD's Pond #7 in 2013:

Here's a view looking toward the northwest from Brentwood Lane. Lake #4 is in the background and COD's pond 7 is on the right.

Here's the southwest area of the campus during the flooding of April 2013; The beginning of Pond #7 wetlands is on the right, and COD's new CMC building is in the background. The following photo was taken facing directly east:

Here's an aerial view of the "way it was" prior to the recent construction. The arrows in this photo indicate approximately where the photographer was standing for the 2008 photos which provide a view of the "nature study area" and the "M building practice fields":

Was past flooding considered when planning the construction of 2008-2012? 
I don't know. A resident told me that he did submit photos to the college. They were similar to the ones shown above and taken in 2008. He did this when they announced their expansion plans in this corner of the campus. He insists he told the college "This won't work; it will create problems."

I doubt if anyone at COD will say "Yes, you told us so!" unless we can document via certified letters, etc.

How has the drainage and retention changed?
The soccer fields south of the M building were about 2.9 acres in 2008 and during severe rain storms were covered with water and retained it. That's what's shown in the photos of 2008.

An additional area of soccer fields and green space extended from the area to the west of the M building and continued north. This area of about 6 acres also retained water in these storms, and detained the flow into Pond #7's emergent wetland. These grassy and low lying areas shielded BLMH and retained natural flow from higher elevations such as BLMH and COD, as well as Lake #3. This provided some protection for the Brentwood neighborhood.

The total area of this green space and emergent wetlands was about 16.5 acres; but no longer. Not only has the area been reduced, the elevation has been changed. Higher elevations cannot retain water unless by specific design. The new pond #9 meets that criteria.

Is it a coincidence that in 2008 the overtopping of Pond #7 was contained with minor sandbagging and Lake #4 didn't overtop, and yet in 2013 there was massive flooding south of the College? We did get less rainfall in the "flood" of 2008. In 2008 with 5.27 inches of rain the flooding was a "trickle" as compared to what occurred in April 2013.

Did COD alter the natural pattern of drainage?
Today the soccer fields have been removed and grassy areas have been replaced by parking, the CMC building, the "service area" of the college which includes "material storage" and the new "pond 9". A large berm extends for about 750 feet along the western property line of the campus. It sheds water onto the private property to the west, reversing the flow of stormwater which now is trapped to the west and no longer travels to the southeast.

The berm retains nothing and has created a channel or "swale" which directs rapidly flowing water south and into Pond #7 and Lake #4. It also directs it onto the private property west of the campus. Additional construction has raised the elevation of the campus east of the berm including added parking and the CMC building. Those constructs now carry water via new sewers in the direction of CODs pond 9. But not all water drains in that direction. Some leaves the pond 9 area, goes west toward Lake #3 and some, not trapped by the berm, goes south completely bypassing pond #9. All water flows downhill and it eventually finds its was to the Pond #7 emergent wetland and to Lake #4. From there, it may overflow and into Brentwood Lane and homes to the south and also into unincorporated Glen Ellyn.

Back in 2008, Glen Ellyn and the College of DuPage were cozy. When COD began it's expansion in this part of the campus in 2006, that seems to be when things spun out of control.

So how much water was retained in 2008 and how much is retained now? That's a question I'd like answered. To answer it would require access to earlier surveyor's drawings of the campus. However, simply matching the retention of 2008 guarantees flooding under certain conditions. What is required is more retention, not less! A larger solution will be presented in a future post. (Note 2)

I suspect the retention and detention areas of the southwest corner of the campus is less today than it was in 2008. In 2008 these lower lying soccer fields on the western property line of the campus totaled about 9.0 acres. That is equivalent to about 65% of the combined area  of emergent wetland Pond 7 and Lake 4. The subsequent reduction and replacement of those fields combined with the new, higher elevation construction in that part of the campus now sends water into the southwest corner and the Pond #7 wetland via sewers, and at a faster rate. That's the natural consequence of less detention; water flows more rapidly on asphalt and via sewers than it does via grassy fields. Less retention means that those shallow ponds no longer form as they did when the low lying soccer fields filled with water.

In his interview in the May 7 Chicago Tribune article, Robert Breuder, president of the College of DuPage said this:

"The retention pond that we just expanded on the west end of the campus far exceeds our current needs and the current expectations of the county,"

The highlights in the above quote are mine.  I plan on looking more closely into the alteration of the western portion of the campus in a future post.

Notes:

1. Clicking will open a  New Window> Warrenville Flood Investigation
2. Not everyone is happy to be involved in this problem, nor are they willing to find the answer and a solution. Solutions always take money and this problem is no different. I do realize that this is probably boring stuff for those who did not experience flooding in 1996, 2008 and 2013. However, when the next rain comes, there are new owners in the area, or should more extensive flooding occurs, there will probably be the complaint as there was in 2013. Someone may say "How could this happen? I didn't know!" Another will probably say "I didn't know there was a lake over there." (that's an actual quote of a neighbor about two blocks away). Well, no one can ever say someone wasn't putting this out here.
3. This is moving toward a conclusion, albeit slowly. I should be there in two or three more posts, but it may take a few more if I'm to keep these short. This particular post is about 3,000 words. Sorry for that. I realize that I do repeat some of the content of previous posts, but I'm assuming this might be the first time you read about this problem and I'm attempting to provide sufficiency in each post so each can stand alone and provide specific perspective. The next posts will include one on "what hasn't worked; bandaids versus solutions." I suppose that one which is a summary of the previous 20,000 words and photos is probably in order. The concluding post for this series will include specific possibilities and options. Of course, I'll also be providing updates. 
4. I'm no different than anyone else in this area and I too have a lot of other things to do with my time. However, I'm a long term planner and watching this has been like watching that proverbial slow motion train wreck. I decided to document this and to take a stand; that's the responsible thing to do, isn't it? As I recently wrote to Robert Breuder, the president of the College of DuPage, "You are either a part of the solution or the problem." As I see it, it's necessary to "walk the talk" and so it is with this blog. 
5. I will be moving on to other things here at BLMH, but I'll be coming back to this topic from time to time as requirements dictate.  Let's be honest, shall we. In this age of tweets, stream of consciousness news and "20 second" sound bites, most people have already moved on to something else. Is it any wonder that longer term and larger problems cannot be solved, such as the recurring flooding of this part of DuPage County?