County Surveyor and a farmer harmed by spring flooding working on ways to improve drainage
By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — There appears to be some movement in Kosciusko County aimed at improving the way officials approach drainage issues.
Overall, drainage problems, which can often impact farmers, is being exacerbated by continual growth and development, which reduces the amount of permeable ground that can absorb the runoff.
The process of dewatering, in which water is pumped out to reduce the water table in order to allow for construction, is a standard process, but can occasionally cause problems.
One farmer who felt the effects this year is Don Zolman, who has farm operations around much of Winona Lake, including property near a residential development that’s part of the Raccoon Run subdivision.
He says the developer installed 28 well heads to pump water out almost continuously, starting in March and continuing into May, leaving some of his property flooded.
“I didn’t realize the quantity of water that they were planning on removing,” Zolman said. “It was almost 11 million gallons of water a day when the pumps were running at full capacity.”
Zolman took his concerns to numerous elected officials in the county and Winona Lake and was frustrated by the apparent lack of authority to force the developer to stop endlessly pumping water onto other properties.
“In reviewing everything going through the process, it seemed like there were some gaps in who was responsible and who could determine whether the water could continue to pump or not,” Zolman said during an interview for In The Know, a public affairs show that will air this weekend.
Zolman was joined by Jim Moyer, the county surveyor who works closely with the drainage board and has talked extensively about Zolman’s plight.
“Don is right,” Moyer said. “There was no overlying government entity, either the town or the county, that could really regulate this,” Moyer said.
Possible change, though, appears to be on the horizon.
Zolman has proposed a long-term drainage modernization plan, a multi-faceted plan that would take years to implement and would be expensive.
Among the proposals is a countywide drainage inventory and hydraulic modeling initiative that would address existing drains, some of which were designed nearly 100 years ago.
Another would be a ten-year phased in drainage upgrade plan.
Moyer is working on another plan.
“My staff in the area plan office is working right now to craft a dewatering ordinance and procedures that would help prevent this from happening in the future,” Moyer said.
“The main thing would be knowing the amounts of water that’s going to be transferred, where it’s going, who’s going to handle it, and a time frame for how long it’s going to be done,” Moyer said.
Zolman said he believes fixing the overall drainage problem should be a top priority for trhe county and scoffs at the idea the county commissioners were contemplating earlie this year with the idea of using millions of dollars to construct a parking garage in Warsaw while drain issues continue to be ignored
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Below are broadcast times for this weekend’s In The Know on Kensington Digital Media radio stations in Warsaw.
Now Warsaw (99.7 FM and 1480 AM):
Friday at 9 am and 5 pm
Saturday at 7 am
Sunday at 7 am
WRSW (107.3 FM)
Sunday at 6 am
WILLIE (103.5 FM)
Saturday at 7 am
The post County Surveyor and a farmer harmed by spring flooding working on ways to improve drainage appeared first on News Now Warsaw.
