City denies sewer causes wet yards

The city says Mother Nature, not a sewer project, is causing the problems.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Rainwater didn't used to pool in the Burma Drive yards of George Hammar and Rusty Davis.
That didn't start until after the city finished a storm sewer project running through their yards, they say.
The city engineer, however, says that deluges from Mother Nature over the past few years -- not the sewer work -- have left behind the soggy yards.
Drainage project
Hammar and Davis live on Burma near Coral Seas Drive, where the first and second phases of the sewer project meet in the Kirkmere drainage project. The third and final phase, to start this fall, extends the drainage project from Kirk Road to St. Christine Church on Canfield Road.
The two West Side residents say they want to warn other residents living where the project will be extended about what can happen.
"I just want my place to get back to normal," Hammar said.
Wet yards all over
Unusually heavy rains the past two years have left yards wet across the city, county and region, said Carmen Conglose Jr., city deputy director of public works.
Problems on Burma are related to the excessively wet weather, not the sewer project, he said.
"Many of these things can only be blamed on Mother Nature," he said. "It's been to an extent that we haven't seen for the last hundred years."
Severe sanitary sewer backups and storm water basement flooding that plagued the neighborhood for 15 or 20 years have been alleviated, he pointed out.
Hammar and Davis have a list of problems they say started after the sewer project.
Water pools
Foremost is the water that accumulates and sits for days after even a modest rain, they say. Davis shows recent pictures of water pooled in his front yard, obscuring his sidewalk. A few feet away sits the catch basin.
Rain rushes down a nearby hill and sits in his yard, dug up during the drainage project, instead of flowing into the sewer, he said.
"It has to flow through my front yard to get into the drain," Davis said.
Conglose said the sewer project has nothing to do with the sinking sidewalk, but the city soon will replace the walk anyway.
Ditches filled in
Water runs into Burma front yards because people have filled in the ditches that the subdivision was designed with to handle storm water, he said.
Hammar also is upset with the condition of the right of way running next to his house.
Hammar shows pictures of his back yard, a corner of the lot submerged under rainwater. The yard stays wet for days after the water recedes, he said. There are about 2 feet of soil on top of the sewer but not enough to soak up the rainwater, he said.
Ground cover over the sewer line is thin grass or weeds and there are rocks everywhere, indicating inadequate soil and seeding, he said. A drain sat covered with straw that washed away from a recent failed attempt to again seed the right of way.
Conglose said the excessive rain makes landscaping the property impossible and there is little more the city can do. He is confident the issues will dissipate once the weather returns to normal.
rgsmith@vindy.com