Village Can't Make Commitments to Permanently Cure Flooding

Making no commitments or promises, Oak Lawn Village Manager Larry Deetjen gave it to residents straight about the village’s master plan to relieve flooding.

“I know that your president and village board have had a lot of discussion and phone calls,” Deetjen said at last week’s village board meeting. “I’m going to tell you what we’re working on, and we are working on it.”

Deetjen said not to expect any instant fixes to Oak Lawn’s flooding problems, including when almost four inches of rain in as many hours overwhelmed the village’s storm sewer on June 9.

“We have separate pipes to carry the storm and sanitary systems,” Deetjen said. “Unfortunately, through time and age of your homes and systems, we actually have encroachment or storm water that gets into the sanitary line."

Deetjen outlined two ambitious plans to relieve Oak Lawn’s flooding. Unfortunately, however, the village is dependent on other government agencies and institutions for permanent long-term solutions.

“We’re looking at solutions, some which do not involve the president and board alone,” the village manager said. “It requires other government agencies that you pay taxes to … the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, the school and park districts.”

An ambitious Plan A involves turning unused land owned by the Archdiocese of Chicago at St. Casmir Cemetery into a wetland. The plan is to take two large outdoor reservoirs and build an open space with a bike path that links to Alsip, Stony Creek and the Wolf Wildlife Refuge.

If constructed, the water retention area would be 100 times the size of the Oakdale Subdivision Retention Pond when Stony Creek was unable to hold excessive rainwater on June 9.

The village needs the cooperation of the archdiocese and the MWRD for the land and permits.

“We would take pipeline and move it due south down Kilpatrick underneath 111th Street into the wetland area and develop it into the highest and best use of that property,” Deetjen said.

Costs for the St. Casmir project are estimated at $84 million.

Plan B calls for rebuilding 103rd Street between Cicero and Central avenues. The village has the support of the Cook County Department of Highways to design a new street in the area so that larger pipes can be laid underneath. Sidewalks would also be widened into a walking/bike path, with squall lines for water retention. Design and reconstruction is estimated around $13.8 million.

“When we have presentations like this, what strikes me is the dependence we have on other people like the archdiocese and MWRD for the big fix,” Trustee Tom Phelan (Dist. 6) said.

During the flooding earlier this month—during which the St. Catherine’s Parish area was one of the most severely flooded areas—Phelan said one of his residents suggested filing a class-action lawsuit against the water reclamation district.

“It’s almost to that point if we can’t get the big stuff done,” Phelan said.

Last year, the village applied for two competitive federal grants but was turned down for both. Only two grant applications in the state were awarded federal money out of the approximate $600 billion in grants awarded around the country, Deetjen said.

Deetjen said that village officials, including the Department of Public Works, would be meeting with the MWRD in the next few weeks to discuss smoke testing to determine where there are leaks in the storm and sanitary lines. Newer pipe will be slipped into older pipe to replace parts of the line where leakage has been identified.

The village has talked with the Oak Lawn Park District and School Dist. 218 about building precast holding tanks beneath Memorial, Dillon and Brandt parks, and the baseball diamonds at Richards High School.

And for the first time in village history, flow meters have been installed into the sewer system at specific locations throughout the village that can feed water flow data into a computer modeling system.

“We can play with different storm levels and determine what the impact of flooding will be,” Deetjen said.

For now, the village has committed $1 million to upgrade the village’s four sanitary lift stations.

“We’re talking 100 years of history,” Deetjen said. “It’s not going to happen with the snap of a finger.”