File Photo Heavy rains led to flooding in parts of Bethlehem and Wheeling a little over a week following the devastating floods in Valley Grove, Triadelphia and Elm Grove.

WHEELING — Pop-up storms and torrential downpours that led to multiple flash flooding incidents in the Ohio Valley this season, and in some areas, overburdened storm water systems have resulted in flooded roadways.

This often disastrous situation has kept municipal crews on their toes with preventative maintenance by keeping storm water management systems flowing freely and clear of debris.

While heavy rains can quickly overwhelm culverts and storm drains, clogged drainage systems can easily make a bad situation worse, officials noted.

“We have areas that are more prone to debris issues, and we check those on a regular basis,” said Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron. “One of the problems we have is that people do throw branches, grass clippings and things like that into the runs, and they make their way to the storm sewers sometimes. We try to have people not do that.”

In recent years, the city of Wheeling purchased a large vacuum truck for its Water Pollution Control Division to help clean out storm sewer systems. Another smaller “vac truck” that is a catch basin cleaner with a street sweeper was also purchased for the city operations department about three years ago.

“We have two vac trucks that go around almost every day cleaning out storm sewers as well as sanitary sewer lines,” Herron said. “If we get a situation where there’s a significant amount of debris that gets into a storm sewer or a box culvert that goes under a road, then we also use a private contractor by the name of Robinson Pipe Cleaning. They have other equipment that can handle much, much larger pieces of debris – mainly logs.”

The city also takes other measures to help keep its sewer lines clear. On a handful of occasions in the past, the city has contracted with Duke’s Root Control of Syracuse, New York, to address issues involving tree roots that end up growing into underground pipes.

“We do root control, as well – they can be a problem,” Herron noted. “But that’s more of a problem around sanitary sewer lines.”

The extreme volume of rain that fell during the deadly June 14 flash floods and the subsequent weather events that flooded several areas on June 26 not only overburdened storm water management systems but also caused streams and creeks to overflow their banks and turn into raging rivers.

“You can’t build storm sewers to handle that volume of rain in that short period of time,” Herron said.

Outside the city of Wheeling, state routes and county roads also have culverts, catch basins and ditches that need to be maintained.

“We have a program that uses a culvert cleaning truck,” said West Virginia Department of Transportation District 6 Engineer Brian Kucish. “Each county will go through and see which ones need to be cleaned, and we clean out the pipes.”

The state Division of Highways is responsible for the routine maintenance of stormwater systems along the state routes, in most instances, officials said.

“If a culvert is on a state road, typically the state will deal with those,” said Ohio County Administrator Randy Russell. “But a lot of the culverts that are under driveways are owned by the residents.”

Russell said if a drainage system is on private property, in most cases it is the responsibility of the property owner to maintain it. The same goes for culverts and catch basins along streets and roadways within a municipality – if it is not part of the state highway system – it is up to that municipality to keep it clear.

“The county does not have a program,” Russell said regarding. “Culverts in the towns typically are the responsibility of the towns.”

In more rural areas, there is no stormwater management system in place like there is throughout neighborhoods in the city of Wheeling.

“The state does ditching along state roadways,” Russell noted, explaining that in most cases, storm drainage runs off of the roads and into nearby creeks and streams in the more rural locations.

In the wake of the June 14 flood that devastated Triadelphia and Valley Grove, several agencies and entities have worked collaboratively to clear mountains of flood debris from the waterways and out of drainage systems as quickly as possible in the event of another heavy rain event.

“The Conservation Agency in West Virginia is out there now cleaning off the creek banks, and they will get the debris out of the ditches, as well,” Russell said, noting that not even the best stormwater system maintenance could have had an impact on last month’s deadly flooding around Little Wheeling Creek.

“The creek just clearly overflowed its banks, and the culverts weren’t intended to take that amount of water,” Russell said. “That’s obviously where the damage happens. Your typical rain on a Sunday afternoon when it rains for 10 minutes and stops – the drainage systems are intended to take that kind of water, not the amount of water that we got on June 14.”

Last month’s sudden downpours first inundated smaller streams and runs, along with neighborhood storm water runoff systems. In these instances, not only do streets flood, but basements of residences flood – even in residences away from the epicenter of destruction.

In Wheeling, a major stormwater management project is being put in place in the neighborhood around Edgwood and Edgington Lane. Elm Run meanders through the heart of the neighborhood, and during heavy rains, the excessive runoff has resulted in numerous basement backups and flooding.

“All of the runoff that drains into Elm Run overflows the storm sewer systems, and then ultimately you get some basement flooding,” Herron explained, noting that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been involved in the effort to find a solution to this ongoing problem. “Six or seven years ago in a study on the Elm Run stormwater area, they came up with a couple of different scenarios. Now there’s engineering being done to combine those scenarios into the best possible construction project.”

U.S. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., were instrumental in helping to secure Congressionally Directed Spending or federal earmarks to help pay for the engineering of this long-awaited project, Herron noted.

The Elm Run Stormwater Management Project extends into Ohio County and involves several hundred acres of property – both developed and undeveloped – that drain into Elm Run, Herron explained.

“Right now, a project is being engineered to deal with as much of that runoff as possible,” Herron said. “That will include potential retention, sizing of box culverts, dredging and some enclosing of storm sewers. That is a very large project.

“When it’s done, it will be an actual construction document.”

The city requested and received $521,000 from the federal earmark to conduct engineering on this project, which was established by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is managing the design. The total cost of engineering is $695,000, toward which city provided a $174,000 match.

“That project is 33% complete on design,” Herron said. “The Army Corps is managing the project and is making progress.”

Herron said that once the design is complete, the Elm Run Stormwater Management Project Project will be presented to Wheeling City Council for consideration when the plan is ready for the construction phase.