Mentor Flooding Woes Discussed at Committee Meeting

For more than 90 minutes on Tuesday, a Mentor City Council Drainage Subcommittee, city administrators and about a half-dozen residents discussed why some areas of the city are prone to flooding problems and how they may be resolved.

Mentor city officials are working with the Lake County Department of Utilities and engineering firm CT Consultants to understand what is causing the flooding problems. A summary of findings and recommendations may be completed and presented to Mentor City Council by mid-summer.

On February 28, a rainstorm and melting snow flooded and damaged about 270 homes and businesses. The flood also closed about eight city streets including sections of Route 306, Heisley, Progress, Bellflower, Independence, Hopkins Markwood, Atkins, Kittery, East and Patterson Drive.

“We’re trying to get a better understanding of these flooding issues,” said Mentor City Engineer David A. Swiger. “We are looking at the sanitary sewer and the storm sewer systems. At times they are unrelated, and at times they could be somewhat related (when flooding occurs). We have to understand each one before we decide what we want to move forward with.”

Swiger says Lake County Department of Utilities will conduct flow tests along four sections of a 30-inch sanitary sewer line that runs under SR 306. The flow tests will help determine what sections of the sanitary sewer line receive more water than they should. This excess water flow  may be a cause for sanitary sewer water to back up into home basements.

For example, many home basements were flooded at Chestnut Commons, off SR 306, north of SR 2. However, Swiger said Chestnut Commons’ basements are close to the elevation of the main sanitary sewer line, which most likely caused the flooding.

A solution may be to install a pump that would prevent flooding or for homeowners to install backflow devices that would stop the sanitary sewer water backing into the basements.

The city also will inspect stormwater ditches as well as  retention and detention basins throughout the city. However, Swiger said retention and detention basins are not contributing to flooding.

“I think we put ourselves on the right road,” said Ward 3 Councilman Ed Walsh, who chairs the subcommittee. “But like everything else, it’s going to take time. Hopefully, we’ll be able to take care of these problems before we have another major storm such as the one we had earlier this year and the 2006 storm that caused major flooding throughout the city.”

Walsh also is concerned about  water runoff problems from the SR 2 reconstruction project. He plans to work with the Ohio Department of Transportation to see if the water runoff can be retained or controlled to prevent flooding.