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Stormwater coordinator outlines cleanup work and priority projects, flags floodplain limits
Summary
The city’s environmental programs coordinator reported on stormwater-clearance work, upcoming in-house and contracted drainage projects, coordination with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for blue-line streams and a grant-funded levee/levee-breach effort tied to the softball complex and regional drainage.
Sophia West, McAlester’s environmental programs coordinator and stormwater manager, briefed the council on stormwater work, upcoming projects, permitting constraints on blue-line streams and a county-coordinated levee/ditch repair funded in part by a grant.
West said the city’s stormwater team has been active in clearing ditches and culverts and provided quantitative figures during the report. “The last past 4 months, they've cleared 755 yards of panels and ditches...they have collected 203,720 pounds,” West said as she summarized recent cleanup volumes. She said she will present a fuller report at the first council meeting in May.
West reviewed a master drainage priority list of projects the city plans to address, some in-house and some contracted because of scale and cost. Projects she highlighted as approved to move forward included: an in-house storm pipe replacement on West Brewer Road (Ward 5); replacement of an 18-inch drainage pipe on Comenci Avenue (Ward 6); reestablishing a ditch at 14th and Timberland (Ward 2) to curb runoff reaching homes; and a multiyear, contracted MacAuley Regional Airport stormwater drainage improvement project (Phase 1), which will be a multi-year effort and had bids opened the same day as the meeting.
West also discussed a levee/levee-breach issue near the softball complex where floodwaters displaced the levee; the city and the Pittsburgh County Emergency Operations Center were awarded a grant to address the problem with a combination of in-house and contracted work. She warned that work in federally regulated blue-line streams requires Army Corps of Engineers permits (a 404 permit) and can take about 90 days to process.
Council members asked about specific localized flooding problems — including recurring flooding on West Polk — and about whether the recently awarded wildfire/forestry grant could be leveraged to remove trees in some channel stretches. West cautioned that the Corps is often resistant to large-scale vegetation removal because plantings stabilize stream banks, but she said staff will continue exploring overlapping grant opportunities subject to permitting limits.
West invited the public to the stormwater advisory committee meeting later in the month and offered FEMA and city resources for residents to identify floodplain boundaries and get more information.
