Flood control project fails test, residents say

After $1.3-million was spent to slow erosion and flooding, Bishop Creek still rises 15 feet during a heavy rainstorm.

By LEON M. TUCKER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published July 5, 2002

SAFETY HARBOR -- A brown rabbit darted into the bushes in Joe Schnatterer's back yard as he made his way to the 15-foot dropoff along Bishop Creek on Wednesday afternoon.

"I come out every day and see them," the 73-year-old said as he walked along the bank's edge.

Monday afternoon was different.

There were no rabbits on that part of Schnatterer's back yard that day. It was under water.

Heavy rains had caused the portion of Bishop Creek in back of his home in the Harbor Woods subdivision to flood so high that the waters crept within 20 feet of the rear of his house.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

The city had just completed a $1.3-million project that included a retention pond to keep Bishop Creek from eroding and flooding.

"After all the work they did, it didn't seem like it has improved anything," Schnatterer said. "When we have a heavy rain, we get flooded."

Before the rain stopped Monday, creek waters had risen more than 15 feet, fueling residents' concerns that the flood control project hadn't worked.

City officials disagree and say the pond worked just fine -- adding that there was just a lot of rain.

"We had what appears to be a high-intensity, short-duration rain," said Kurt Peters, the city's public works director. "The pond operated the way it was designed."

It took the city five months to repair the heavily eroded creek and complete construction of the retention pond to help slow the water flow.

Last fall, city commissioners approved buying a 5-acre chunk of property from the Florida Sheriff's Youth Ranch on Enterprise Road for $350,000. There workers spent months digging and hauling away truckloads of dirt to form the 3-acre pond.

On its south side, a diversion dam was installed. The concrete box-like structure is designed to hold up heavy creek flow and push it through a 24-inch hole into the pond.

The pond, which is located on the edge of the Rainbow Farms subdivision, is then supposed to collect the water -- up to a half-million gallons of it. The water is kept in the retention area until it reaches about 38 feet above sea level, when it runs through another pipe back into the creek.

That, according to Constance Brenner, didn't happen.

When Brenner stepped outside her home after Monday afternoon's downpour, the Rainbow Farms resident said, the creek across the street had flooded and was approaching the roadway 25 feet from its banks.

"They put the new retention pond in to eliminate this kind of flooding, and (Monday's rain) proved it didn't," Brenner said. "It was dangerously high for the amount of money they took from our taxes."

Other parts of the city flooded as well.

Pinellas County sheriff's deputies had to block off the stretch of Enterprise Road between McMullen-Booth Road and Green Springs Drive because of flooding there.

According to the National Weather Service, the area received about 2.5 inches of rain in an hour Monday afternoon and as much as 5 inches for the entire day -- which proved to be enough to overfill the new retention pond Monday.

"It's not an unusual amount for this time of year," meteorologist Jason Deese said. "But many times we have very light winds, which means when a storm forms it stays in one place -- which is what that storm did."

A 30-foot section of Mike Berriman's yard was under 4 inches of water as late as Tuesday.

"If it stays here too much longer, you end up with a mosquito hatchery," said the Rainbow Farms resident, gesturing toward the water that had reached well over his deck shoes. "Even with the worst rains, I've never seen anything like this."

Meanwhile, another part of the creek project was designed to help restore eroded creek walls by installing a mixture of concrete and vegetation to control water flow.

Screen baskets called gabions, filled with broken concrete, also were placed along the parts of the creek where steep dropoffs occurred.

"There's no way we can tell what would have happened if the city had not moved forward with that renovation," Peters said. "But we will continue to monitor the conditions, as we always do, and if we foresee problems created, then we'll address these problems."

A newly installed string of gabions and crushed rock behind Schnatterer's home showed signs of recent erosion. A 2-foot gap had formed behind the gabion, causing it to sag, while the crushed rock deposited on the banks had slipped onto the creek floor.

"The work they did was very superficial, from what I can see," Schnatterer said. "It didn't solve the problem."

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright