DPW staff members speak with residents about recent rain events that caused widespread flooding at a listening session held at the Hannah Community Center Thursday, Aug. 15. (Lucas Day for ELi)

City Officials Search for Answers to Flooding at Community Listening Session

More than 80 residents attended the wet weather listening and feedback session, which the city hopes will help it better understand the causes of flooding and how to better prepare for large rain storms. 

The event, held Thursday, Aug. 15, saw Department of Public Works (DPW) staff members stationed at tables in the Hannah Community Center asking residents questions about the June and July rainstorms that caused widespread flooding in the city. 

“We can’t be everywhere and we don’t have monitors out in the system,” City Manager Robert Belleman said. “Getting the feedback from the residents on how they were impacted will help us understand how the system worked and whether the system could work better, or whether it was a rain event that no matter what we designed, it wasn’t going to handle the downpour that we received.”

Belleman said he was encouraged by the turnout for the event, and that the first residents arrived around 40 minutes before the session began. 

The July 9 storm forced the city to close major roadways. (Courtesy of Marc Bennett)

In recent years, East Lansing has experienced several storms that have caused basement and street flooding around the city. An analysis of a 2021 storm by engineering firm TetraTech largely placed the blame on climate change.

The city sewer system is designed to handle up to a “10-year storm” or a storm that should only happen in 10% of years. However, due to climate change these large storms that overwhelm the system are happening more and more often.

“Our sewers, even designed at a 10-year or above design standard, are never going to, I hate to say ‘never,’ [but] are not designed to take on those 100-year storm events,” Former DPW Director Nicole McPherson said at a 2022 meeting about the TetraTech report. 

Belleman said a third-party consultant will use feedback from the listening session to give a presentation to City Council at its Sept. 10 discussion-only meeting analyzing the storms. Additionally, the data will help the city develop its Wet Weather Resiliency plan. 

Environmental Sustainability and Resiliency Manager Cliff Walls explained the Wet Weather Resiliency plan tracks the history of large storms in East Lansing to determine what the “new normal” will be going forward. 

“We’ve run a bunch of numbers to figure out what things used to look like, historically,” he said. “We’ve run a bunch of numbers to figure out what storms are going to look like in the future, and we just had a very historic event, and we want to make sure that’s captured in that data.”

Belleman said the city is looking to identify all factors that may be contributing to the increased flooding. Besides climate change, Belleman mentioned development and the city’s sewer system as factors that will be examined. 

He also said the city is looking to find out more about changes to residential properties that may be impacting the storm water management system. He said if more homeowners are adding pavement to create extended driveways or patios, it is reducing permeable surfaces that absorb water, and could be directing runoff water to drains that don’t have the capacity for the increase. 

Water ran from a tube that was coming from a Glencairn neighborhood home shortly after the July 9 storm. (Lucas Day for ELi)

Belleman said he is hopeful that the city can gain insights into new issues with this year’s flooding. He said he talked to residents in the Whitehills neighborhood whose homes flooded in July, but had not previously. 

“This event, through the information we gather, as well as the engineering looking at it will get us closer to understanding why that neighborhood flooded if it’s never flooded before,” he said. 

Belleman said the city will use the feedback to determine new ways to address flooding. He floated the idea of redirecting stormwater to temporarily flood public parks as a mitigation strategy the city could take. 

Feedback from Thursday’s event and other efforts to examine flooding can help the city with long term planning, Walls said. He said the city will review its code to find old language that may be preventing green infrastructure. 

Speaking with residents is also helpful because it shows where resources are needed and what the city could do a better job of communicating, Walls said. He said some homeowners could do things like move downspouts further from the foundation of their house or utilize existing resources, like the city’s backflow preventer reimbursement program. 

“Things can get overwhelmed,” Walls said. “But being knowledgeable about drainage on your property, how your systems work, how your sump pump works, those are the types of steps I take to make sure that I’m not caught off guard and at least am putting the best foot forward.”

While the city hopes to make strides in managing stormwater, there is no silver bullet to fix the problem through expanding the city’s sewer system on the horizon. Belleman said he “doesn’t even know where to begin” when estimating the cost of a large expansion. 

Previously at a City Council meeting, Councilmember Erik Altmann said it might be necessary for the city to explore a stormwater utility to pay for upgrades. He also floated the idea of putting a moratorium on new developments until the city finds a way to manage stormwater on new sites.