Scott City ditches bring unwanted water to homes

Over the past nine years, Joel and Sharon Huey of Scott City have lost 10 feet of their property to erosion caused by a nearby drainage ditch that often overflows.

After heavy rainfalls, they're left with a waterlogged yard strewn with trash and broken tree limbs

"It's not even our trash, but we're stuck cleaning it up," Sharon Huey said. She and her husband own adjacent properties at 208 and 212 Nellie Street.

The couple has seen trash cans, tires and logs floating down the ditch after storms. During a heavy rainfall in May, nine rubber balls from a nearby daycare floated down.

The debris clogs the concrete culvert behind their home, causing the water to back up and overflow into what is left of their yard.

The Hueys are just one of several families spread throughout Scott City who face regular flooding because of clogged drainage ditches. The problem surfaced again this week with the 4-plus inches of rain the area received.

Ditches that run along Maple, Clark and First streets also have an overflow problem, and city officials say the topography of the town, along with an insufficient drainage system and debris in or near ditches, contribute to the flooding.

Residential runoff

The ditches all run through residential areas and drain into Ramsey Creek west of town. Each of the residential areas is situated in a basin, which makes water runoff an even bigger issue. Most of the ditches are on private property and haven't been maintained by homeowners over the years, city officials say.

The flooding has prompted city officials to consider budgeting an additional $20,000 for ditch maintenance next year, and they've teamed up with the Natural Resources Conservation Service to find solutions to the problem.

After two days of rain this week, Maple Street resident Fran Brooks could hear water seeping into her basement as she talked on the phone upstairs Wednesday.

"It sounds like a faucet has been turned on downstairs," said Brooks, who has battled unwanted water in her 136-year-old home since she moved in 13 years ago.

During a bout of heavy rain in early May, Brooks watched as 3 feet of water filled her basement, popping mortar out of the block wall that serves as a foundation for her home. She now worries that the south wall may collapse.

"The insurance won't fix the wall because they claim it was an existing problem," she said. "I don't have the finances to fix it. This is my home. If it falls, I have nowhere else to go."

Brooks' home is one of around 12 in the 400 and 500 blocks of Maple Street in Scott City plagued by regular floods from an overflowing drainage ditch located behind the houses.

Brooks estimates that she has spent around $10,000 combating the ditch over the past decade. She's had to replace several furnaces and a hot water heater and is constantly pumping water out of the basement. The floodwater also seeps into her sewer line, causing it to back up.

City workers began cleaning out the drainage ditches earlier this year, beginning where the ditches empty into Ramsey Creek and working their way toward town.

The city usually budgets $10,000 for annual ditch maintenance, but the city council will consider increasing that amount by as much as $20,000 for next year at its meeting Monday night.

Scott City Mayor Tim Porch estimates it will cost $60,000 to clear out all of the ditches, but said cleaning up the vegetation may not solve the entire problem because the city's drainage system simply isn't adequate.

"It's nobody's fault," he said. "The city has just grown over the years, and there's nowhere for the water to go."

Retention basin

Porch said one solution to the problem would be building a 30-acre retention basin to temporarily hold the floodwater.

The city is working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a branch of the United States Department of Agriculture, to solve the problem.

Darin Gant, district conservationist with the NRCS office in Benton, Mo., said plans already are underway to slow down the water runoff and improve the drainage system.

No detailed study of the system has been made at this point, but Gant said part of the process will involve looking for a retention basin site upstream. Officials estimate building a retention basin would take $250,000 and are looking into grants to help offset the cost.

In the meantime, the city has enlarged the culvert behind the Hueys' home so that more water can flow through. Joel Huey said the new culvert has helped but hasn't solved the problem.

The Nellie Street ditch runs southward, making two sharp turns along the Hueys' property before flowing through a culvert behind their home.

"It comes gushing down like a locomotive," Sharon Huey said. "And the water doesn't want to turn, it just goes straight into our yard."

The flooding eventually washed out a 5-foot wooden fence that had bordered the ditch. Last summer, Joel Huey constructed a barricade of 7-inch-thick railroad ties stacked nearly 3 feet high around his property, but even that hasn't been enough to keep the water out.

The floodwater nearly fills a 5-foot crawl space under the Hueys' two-story home. They've had to place jacks in the crawl space to help hold the house up. During the May flood, water in the crawl space came within inches of the first-story floorboards.

"We're always afraid that one day the water will get in the house," Sharon Huey said. "I think about what we would move upstairs first and how fast we could move stuff."

The couple has brought the issue before the Scott City council a number of time in the past eight years, but they say little has been done.

"I'm not really angry with the city. I understand they only have so much money," said Joel Huey.

A lack of funds is exactly the problem, city officials say.

"No doubt about it, the Hueys have a problem," said councilman Robert Tyler, who represents the ward the Hueys reside in. "It's a tough situation, and there's no quick fix. But we are trying to remedy things."

cclark@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128