OCEAN CITY — After major flooding along sections of Coastal Highway in September, it was discovered many of the storm water catch basins that drain water off the roadway were clogged with years of sand and other materials.
During the annual fall update meeting with State Highway Administration (SHA) officials on Tuesday, Public Works Director Hal Adkins broached the subject of the chronic flooding issues along some sections of Coastal Highway and SHA’s responsibility to keep the catch basins free of sand and debris. During the September storm that dropped several inches of rain on the resort area in a short period of time, some sections of Coastal Highway and other roads around the resort were left under a couple of feet of water.
Coastal Highway is officially Maryland Route 528 and the maintenance of the storm water run-off systems largely falls on the state. However, the town is also responsible for the storm water drainage systems that feed into the major drainage system on Coastal Highway. To that end, Adkins suggested the town and SHA partner on a comprehensive cleaning of the storm water systems and catch basins to prevent the scope and scale of flooding seen during the September storm.
“This issue could become a joint venture between the town and SHA,” he said. “The last time I recall a comprehensive storm drain and catch basin cleaning was when then-City Engineer Dennis Dare was here after Hurricane Gloria,” he said. “We mobilized a fleet of vehicles and manpower at that time to do the work.”
Adkins explained the town’s policy since that major cleanup effort has largely been to clean out the feeder drain systems when particular streets and roads are repaved, for example. Similarly, SHA typically cleans out drainage catch basins when it undertakes major paving projects along Coastal Highway.
“What we have done since then has been hit and miss,” said Adkins. “In the last couple of years, or more specifically the last few months, we have experienced what I would call abnormal flooding in areas where the storm drain and catch basis system should have handled it but didn’t.”
Adkins pointed to the September storm that left areas in the north end of the resort along Coastal Highway under a couple of feet of water.
“Using that example, without exaggeration, we ended up with a street that was literally three feet under water,” he said. “We went out and cleaned the catch basin and there was years of accumulated beach sand in the there. We got 120 cubic feet of material out of just that one location.”
Adkins told the council and SHA officials on hand that a similar flooding event could and probably would reoccur if the town-wide drainage systems were not cleared of debris. He suggested there could be an opportunity for the town to partner with SHA on the project.
“We have an issue that we are going to have to wrap our arms around in the coming months if the storm drain systems are to function as designed,” he said. “I just want to bring that to your attention.”
SHA District Engineer Jay Meredith agreed there was opportunity for the town to partner with SHA on the drainage issue, but while there was a willingness from SHA to help with the issue, the state’s technical obligation was limited to the state roadway.
“All we can really do is work with our systems,” he said. “It just like we can clean roadside ditches, but there might be outlet ditches further up the line that might be stopped up. This is a similar situation. Most of the outlet structures go back to the town.”
On Tuesday, the issue was left with Adkins and SHA officials agreeing to explore ways to partner with the storm water catch basin issue. SHA officials said there were opportunities to clean out drainage systems in the during the ongoing median fence project in the midtown area. On Wednesday, the issue was broached again during a Capital Improvement Project (CIP) work session.
City Manager Doug Miller explained the project needed to be addressed and could not be pushed further down the town’s priority list.
“Our storm water system has filled in with sand in some spots,” he said. “It’s not a job we can do in-house. This is one project that cannot be deferred.”
Councilman Dennis Dare said there had been discussions about keeping up with the project.
“There was a time when we considered doing this on a routine basis instead of waiting until there was a major problem every 30 years,” he said.
City Engineer Terry McGean said there had been cursory discussions about how to pay for the comprehensive drainage system cleaning that could be renewed.
“We’ve talked in the past about creating a storm water utility,” he said. “It would result in a fee added to the residents’ water and wastewater bill just like the fees for water and sewer. We’ve talked about it in the past if the council wants to revisit that. Otherwise, we can continue to do it the way we’ve been doing it. We’ve been doing it piecemeal out of the paving budget.”