Colfax delays action on stormwater run-off area for Cedar Street property
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — The Colfax Village Board has delayed taking action on a stormwater run-off area for a house on Cedar Street.
The last two years “have been a nightmare,” said Mark Halpin, village trustee, at the Colfax Village Board’s August 12 meeting.
Halpin owns the house at 401 Cedar Street.
While some stormwater or snow melt has always run into the yard, the problem became much worse following the street project several years ago, Halpin said.
Although small rainfalls will result in some standing water, heavier rainfalls result in the yard filling with water that requires wearing knee boots to walk through, he said.
At a meeting in July, Colfax Village Board members discussed the possibility of installing a “French drain” in the yard of the house Halpin owns to help with stormwater run-off.
A French drain is a hole filled with rock to catch and hold water, which then allows the water to seep away.
Lisa Fleming, an engineer with Ayres Associates, attended the August 12 meeting to make a pay request for the Roosevelt Street project.
French drains are illegal, and the project should be referred to as a stormwater pond or stormwater retention area, she said.
The use of a stormwater retention area in the yard would be a temporary fix until there is a street project that includes a storm sewer, said Scott Gunnufson, village president.
The village does carry some responsibility for the problems with drainage by the house Halpin owns because of the street project completed several years ago, he said.
No permit from the state Department of Natural Resources would be necessary for a stormwater retention area because it would be less than one acre, said Rand Bates, director of public works.
The only requirement is that excavation for the stormwater retention area must stop five feet above the groundwater, Fleming said.
Drainage
Chad Berge, village trustee, wondered how long it takes water to drain away at this time of year.
A half inch of rain or an inch is “not a big deal,” but two to three inches “looks like the Red Cedar River coming from Legion Drive,” Halpin said.
Fleming asked about the soil composition.
At Wood’s Run Forest Products, located to west of the house Halpin owns, there is two to three feet of clay on top of sand, Bates said.
Fleming said in her opinion, without having visited the site, if the hole is deep enough for the stormwater retention area, it would solve most of the problem without engineering the project.
An estimate from Bobcat Pro included in the village board packet listed a dug out area six feet wide, 12 feet long and 15 feet deep to be filled with two loads of three-inch by six-inch screened rock and using sand dug out from the area put on top of the rock two feet deep for a filter area at a cost of $1,531.50.
Fleming recommended wrapping the stone with filter fabric to keep sediment from clogging the stormwater retention area.
In the spring when the frost is still in the ground, there will be no percolation, so it would be difficult to say how it would compare to the stormwater retention area’s performance in the summer, Bates said.
If the stormwater retention area freezes in the winter, it will need to thaw before it will work to drain away snow melt, Fleming said.
In the first year, there might not be much relief, but within six months to a year, the stormwater retention area should start to work, she said.
If the groundwater is high, water problems in basements will not go away with the stormwater retention area, Berge said.
If the excavation gets down to groundwater, “stop, because it won’t help,” Fleming said.
The stormwater retention area will be located 25 feet to the west of Cedar Street, and it “will not be a total fix, but it will be an upgrade from what is there,” Bates said.
The property never had water like this before the street changed, Halpin said.
Fill
Fleming wondered if adding fill to the yard would work rather than a stormwater retention area.
The elevation of the house foundation and the road would be needed to find out if fill would work, she said.
Bobcat Pro could shoot the elevation of the house foundation, Fleming said.
Fleming said she would be willing to come to Colfax to meet with Bates and Bobcat Pro.
The Village of Colfax has been such a good customer of Ayres Associates that Fleming said she would be willing to assess the situation at no charge to the village.
Village Trustee Keith Burcham objected to the idea of the village paying for a solution to storm water accumulating in the yard of the house Halpin owns.
“It looks like favoritism. We can’t go yard by yard,” he said.
Gunnufson reiterated he believes the village has some responsibility because of the street project.
The Colfax Village Board approved a motion to table the stormwater retention area until a new quote could be received with the price of the fabric.
Mark Halpin abstained from voting on the motion.
Fleming said she would be able to meet with Bates and Bobcat Pro later in the week.