Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 5, 1995 TAG: 9511060124
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Occasional floods over the years in the Roanoke Valley have made Wayne Strickland's job just a little easier.
When floodwaters swallow cars, close roads, wash out basements and destroy lives, people are forced to reckon with the unstoppable forces of nature. And they tend to think once again about how to avoid the next flood - or at least put a damper on the damage.
Strickland is glad to step in. As director of the Fifth Planning District Commission, Strickland has long promoted a regional approach to storm water management, a subject about as sexy as galoshes, but just as necessary when the hard rains come.
In the early 1980s, Strickland began floating the idea to Roanoke, Salem, and Roanoke and Botetourt counties - and even up in Montgomery County, the headwaters of the Roanoke River. A study was done, but the 1985 flood diverted everyone's attention, and the study "kind of got put on the shelf," Strickland said.
Another flood in 1989 prompted local officials to revisit the idea of regional storm water management, and again in 1992, after that year's flood.
This year, the commission received a $345,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, matched by local funds, to develop a detailed plan - the first time FEMA has awarded the grant for this type of project.
Picture the Roanoke River basin as a huge baseball glove open to the sky. When it rains, some of the water soaks into the leather, and everything else that falls inside the glove collects on the bottom and runs out.
The bottom is Roanoke, Salem and Vinton. Now start building subdivisions, roads, fast-food restaurants and other things along the fingers of the glove, and pretty soon the glove fills up with water. That's called a flood.
"Every inch of ground that's paved is another inch where [rain] doesn't percolate into the ground," said Helen Smythers, the Planning District Commission's chief of community development. And that means more runoff draining into creeks and streams that eventually fight back.
Localities traditionally look at each development project individually and within their own boundaries. But nature knows no such limits. Runoff starts to add up when you talk about developing 10, 20, 200 pieces of property, Strickland said. And it certainly doesn't follow political boundaries. People building upstream don't see what's happening 20 miles downstream.
"It's hard to see that big picture," Strickland said. The storm water management plan will paint in that picture.
Although the plan excludes the Roanoke River - where Roanoke and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers still are pursuing the long-awaited flood-control project - each project will supplement the other, Strickland said. "I can't think but that this is going to help."
Dewberry & Davis, based in Fairfax, has been hired to develop the storm water plan, which will include:
A detailed study of 16 watersheds covering 365 square miles, chosen for persistent flooding problems. Among them are Mason Creek - which periodically rolls over Ramey's Mobile Home Park and other communities - and Peters Creek.
Computer models of future development to the year 2020, based on the valley governments' existing comprehensive plans. The models will trace rainfall and runoff patterns and project flooding in 27 streams covering 112 linear miles - with and without storm water controls.
This will allow localities and the commission a glimpse of the future, Strickland said. Development in the outer ring of Roanoke County is projected to increase by about 130 percent by 2035, he said.
"What happens if we don't have any controls? What happens to all that water?"
Aerial photographs of Roanoke County.
Recommendations for flood control measures such as detention ponds; culverts; bridge improvements; stream channel improvements such as riprap; deepening or widening; and "nonstructural" measures such as wetlands, greenways, parks and preserved open space that will absorb and slow flood waters.
Alternatives to pay for the implementation, such as a bond issue, a special tax district or storm water utility fees.
Strickland said he originally sought participation from Montgomery County, where land-use decisions can have a great impact on waters downstream, but was turned down.
"The response from one of the board members was 'We don't like Roanoke telling us what to do.'''
He is still talking with Botetourt County, where Tinker Creek begins and other streams cross county lines, about joining the project.
Dewberry & Davis consultants are scheduled to meet with local government officials this week to discuss putting together a citizens' advisory group for the project. Part of the project includes public outreach to engage the community in finding problems and solutions. The final plan should be ready next fall.
by CNB