quote:
agnerd, in your opinion, who is responsible and who should pay to fix it in each of your causes of flooding?
Now THAT is a very tough question.
#1 cause of flooding is building in the floodplain where it already floods.
I'd like to say the city or county where this is allowed to occur, but most of the time this occurs in very small population counties where the County commissioner is also the police chief, the fire chief and the public works director and he's also only part time. When you don't have the resources to regulate flooding, I think the responsibility falls to the landowner/homeowner because they're usually having a house built on their land as opposed to a developer building a bunch of houses in a subdivision.
#2 cause is getting more rain than the drainage system was designed for.
This one's God's fault. Tax the churches to pay for it? (kidding) Honestly, this one is based on an economic analysis of how much it costs to fix flood damage vs how much it costs to prevent flood damage. People have voted with their dollars that they are less willing to spend an extra $50k on a house to pay for the extra infrastructure to reduce their flood risk with a more robust drainage system. So developers build what the people want. Since I think homeowners are responsible for setting the design criteria with consumer sentiment, I believe they should pay for it. (Only places i've seen higher standards used had $250k lots and Million dollar houses)
#3 cause is old development before detention was required
Hardest one of all. Nothing they did before was illegal, so it's hard to ask owners of old homes to pay for the flood damage their houses cause. Anyone that's owned a house older than 30 years is responsible. When an old house floods, I think it should be the homeowner's responsibility to pay for the damages to their house.
#4 is clogged storm sewers and improper maintenace
Clogs should be the responsibility of the person causing it. If you can trace that trash can blocking the inlet back to an individual house, they should be responsible. As far as inproper maintenance, the city or county should be responsible, but they usually claim immunity...
#5 cause is subsidence
I guess the state legislature is responsible for allowing it to happen. Good luck getting them to pay for the problem though. They are taking steps to convert to surface water, so at least its a step in the right direction.
The one thing I want to warn the Bryan residents about is usually when you pass funding for flooding improvements, they go the place that needs it most, and that's often not the place that just flooded. Willowbend is a continuing problem, but the Oaks just got a lot of rain in the last event. Put that same amount of rain over other parts of the city and flooding would've been worse. Bryan does have problems that need to be addressed, but I just want to make sure that the voters understand what they're asking their reps to endorse and that the money might not end up in your neighborhood.