The North Beach section of Clearwater Beach, Fla. (Photo: ClearwaterDaily.com)
The continuing battle against flooding in North Clearwater Beach has produced a new culprit: pool and landscaping debris that has been found in the storm sewer system following an initial scoping inspection.
The North Beach section of Clearwater Beach, Fla. while undergoing flood control improvements. (Photo: ClearwaterDaily.com)
The North Beach section of Clearwater Beach, Fla. while undergoing flood control improvements. (Photo: ClearwaterDaily.com)
In response, the city is planning on additional outreach to residents and hiring additional sedimentation inspectors in the short term, while installing temporary pumps to help stem the flooding as part of a plan to be implemented over the next two to six months.
“We’re seeing concrete pool debris as well as landscaping, debris,” said Public Works Director Marcus Williamson, referring to inspections of storm sewer lines in recent weeks. “All this would need to come out in order to have our camera crew go in.”
The city uses two trucks to inspect sewer lines: one known as a Vactor truck that costs about $750,000 and a camera truck that costs about $500,000.
“When we go to get in – for us to go out and put our camera crew in – we put what’s known as a Vactor truck out there to clean out the pipes so we can actually get the cameras inside,” he explained to city council members last week.
Williamson displayed photographs that were taken by the city’s equipment inside the sewer pipes, showing everything from large pieces of concrete, to various construction debris, to piles of landscaping shells.
While the city can – and is planning to – step up enforcement, officials have suggested residents keep tabs on projects underway at their homes and their neighbors’ homes to make sure illegal dumping is not occurring.
“When we have contractors or landscapers dumping stuff into the storm sewer, we’re probably paying magnitudes of additional costs to remove what they’re putting in our storm sewers,” Williamson said. “These are some of the challenges we’re facing – if you get concrete in there, you have to open the pipe and get it out.”
He continued: “Anything our residents can do to remind their neighbors, ‘Hey, putting that in there is costing everyone more money,’ is great, but these are the challenges we’re facing.”
The city is planning both short, mid-level and long term solutions to flooding in North Beach, the largely residential portion of Clearwater Beach north of the hotels and high-rises that characterize much of the barrier island.
The North Beach section of Clearwater Beach, Fla. while undergoing flood control improvements. (Photo: ClearwaterDaily.com)
The North Beach section of Clearwater Beach, Fla. (Photo: ClearwaterDaily.com)
In addition to the temporary pumps, water level sensors will be installed to cue the system to activate. Crews will also adjust flows to “help reduce impacts,” Williamson said.
“They’re on automatic floats, so as water levels come up and down, we’re seeing what’s going on,” he added, noting that such float sensors can often detect when a pool is being emptied into the storm sewer system.
Over the next year to three years, capital projects including the addition of three to four permanent lift pumps will be installed, though upgrading the power infrastructure that will run the pumps may take additional time. The city also plans on more strictly enforcing sediment control compliance from commercial contractors, with the hiring of additional inspectors planned in the future city budget.
Long term solutions, to be implemented over the next three to seven years, include increasing pipe sizes and installing the new pipes, as well as evaluating and potentially repairing road drainage slopes, if necessary, and performing curb and gutter work that could include the installation of new storm drains.
To address the portion of the flooding issues caused by sea level rise, seawall elevations are under review, as well as plans to install a “living shoreline” in some areas, where rip-rap, oyster shells and other structure is used as habitat that both fosters the growth of marine species while attenuating water velocity during storms and times of particularly high tides.
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