Gravel piles, backhoes, trucks, sewer suckers,  barricades, sewer pipes and huge concrete junction pipes again are familiar sights for those living on Robinwood Street. Seems like the city just did sewer work over there.

Actually, it has been 7 years since the last sewer project. But what is going on now?

I asked Tom Grisa, the Director of Public Works. He said it is a sanitary sewer project.

While it may seem that the project started because of the June 7th rains, it has been in the works for over a year. From Tom Grisa:

"The City replaced a portion of the sanitary sewer on Robinwood from S[outh]. 123rd St. to Parkmoor in accordance with the engineering report and storm water and flood task force recommendations for this area.  This work was done in 2001.  Since then we have had several sewer backups on Robinwood west of Parkmoor, so we decided to replace the sewer from Parkmoor to Harvey with the expectation that this should help the situation.  

"This has been in the works for a little over a year.  We proposed the improvement in last year's budget and Capital plan, designed it over the winter, got approval from regulatory agencies this spring and bid the work out and awarded it in late May.

"This improvement will help reduce the frequency and severity of basement backups..."

Many residents living on the side streets near Robinwood experienced basement flooding and sewer backups again. Grisa explained:

 "...this rain resulted in many homes with flooded basements from their sump pumps not keeping up for a variety of reasons (pump failed, pump burned out because they pumped against a lot of pressure from a full storm sewer or ditch, pump couldn't keep up, power outage, window wells leaked, walls leaked, floors leaked through cracks, downspouts were not extended or knocked off, etc.)  When that happens all that water goes down the floor drain into our sewer which is then overloaded and backs up into other people's houses."

Since I've lived in Brookfield, we have had two 100 year rains and now a Millennium rain or flood, depending on your circumstance. When we moved here in 1986, we had no idea that we chose a home on very high ground, just a few houses east of the subcontinental divide on Sunnyslope. Once those 100 year rains came, we realized how blessed we were. The residents near Robinwood Street, less than 1 mile east of us however, are not that fortunate. The land is low over there.

According to residents who predate Brookfield becoming a city, much of Robinwood Street was a wetland, complete with ducks. (The old-timers also say that the Pick 'n Save on Greenfield in West Allis was a marsh when they moved in.)

Kinsey Park pond used to have a dam near Elm Grove Road. If full enough, the pond water would spill over the dam and run down the open storm sewer. As a kid, my cousins, sister and I explored that storm sewer all the way down Robinwood--a very stupid thing to do. Hey, we were kids, we did not know that if it would have rained, we would have been killed. (My parents and aunt and uncle sure did not know what we were up to.)

The City of Brookfield took out the dam--I'm trying to remember--in the 1990s? They installed an overflow stand pipe type drain with a baffle inside and a grate on the top. The baffle acts like an internal dam. Children can no longer access the storm sewers like we so foolishly did. 

Trouble is, when we have a severe rain like the June 7th storm, fallen trees from Kinsey woods wash down the creek and plug the drain. Photo is from June 8th. The backhoe was removing some of the debris.

I spoke with a motorist who saw the pond the evening of June 7th. They said the pond had overflowed its banks and the southbound lane of Elm Grove Road was flooded. A workman was trying to remove debris from the grate that night, so the pond could properly drain. (If you look closely, the drain is on the far left of the photo.)

Back in the 1940s and 1950s, most of this area was farmland, and Cardinal Crest subdivision along Robinwood wasn't developed yet. When we had heavy rains, it really did not matter. But now the southeast corner of Brookfield is nearly totally developed. When it rains; it matters!

Engineering continues to make improvements. Judging by the amount of soggy items out on the driveways waiting to be picked up, even though this last rain was heavier than our previous 2 deluges, it seemed fewer homes were affected. I sincerely hope this project improves the situation for these Robinwood area residents.  

Have anything to add to my history of the area? I love to hear from long time residents.

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We're not out of the woods yet with the storms and flooding. As I am writing this at 2pm, it feels and looks like it could let lose again. Some areas in Brookfield experienced serious flooding yesterday. I noticed today the creek next to Pilgrim Road across from Wirth Park had roaring white caps! Some places were still under water today too: Pilgrim Road was closed by Pilgrim Park Middle School. If it rains heavily again today, there will be more. (Monday road closure update)

I saw this back-ho at Kinsey Park Pond just before 2pm  today. Yesterday at around 7:30pm the pond was up over the banks and completely flooding Elm Grove Road. I think this was due to the debris washed down from the woods creek and possibly blocking the pond outlet drain? 

Please be aware that the road conditions and area flooding do cause problems besides wet basements.

DO NOT drive through deep water. It can cause serious damage to your vehicle--even blow your engine!

Most cars today have their air intakes quite low. My son checked mine and found the air intake in the lower part of the front bumper. (No making waves for me!) Even less than 1 foot of water can cause serious damage. Gone are the days when the carburetor and air intake sat on top of the engine. 

If your car stalls out going through deep water, often you are better off to NOT try to start it. In fact today we need to go look at someone's car that stalled out trying to traverse just 9" or so of water yesterday. It sure did not seem that deep at the time.

I am no mechanic of course, but water sucked into an engine causes serious damage. I think my son called the condition hydro-locked.

Tom Grisa sent around an email to the aldermen about flooding--his own neighborhood was flooded! Here are a few excerpts: 

Obviously we have had a torrential downpour in Brookfield.  We are doing the best we can to deal with the myriad of problems caused by this massive storm.  Flooding exists in numerous locations. 

According to our rain gauges at the plant we had 5.8 inches of rain from 4:30 pm to midnight.  That is a higher rate of rain than occurred in the 1998 flood (8 inches of rain in 12 hours).  Roads are closed in many areas, streets underwater, creeks over their banks, yards flooded, basement flooded, sump pumps not able to keep up, flooded basements draining down the floor drain into the sanitary sewer causing basement backups elsewhere, etc.

Our treatment plant normally handles 7 million gallons per day (MGD). Our treatment plant is designed to treat a maximum of 50 MGD.  Last night we peaked at 66 MGD.  That is 50% higher than we have ever had
before since the plant was upgraded in 1996-1999 (previous record 44 MGD).  I don't know how it compares to the 1998 flows.  Our Riverview interceptor (along the Fox River) normally operates at 2 MGD and was flowing at 28 MGD for a time.

We have placed bypass pumps out in several locations, and some have reduced the backups, but others are still pumping.

Power outages also were prevalent in many areas resulting in sump pumps not working and floor drains taking the flow into the sanitary sewer -thus the backups.

We have had crews out yesterday afternoon and throughout the night.  We ran out of barricades for closing roads per the Policeman I spoke with this morning.  Crews continue to work today to alleviate things as best
they can.  There just isn't much we can do with the incredible amount of rain we had.  But they are doing what they can.  There is just no where for the water to go.

We continue to pump sanitary sewers, clean off inlets, etc.  Inlets near my house this morning at 5 am were completely covered with mulch from people's gardens and from the Lamplighter Park.  That obviously prevents
the area from draining.  I waded into the water a bit (only where I knew it was safe) and cleared some of the inlets and the big one for the pond.  But I do not advocate anyone from wading into water as it can be extremely dangerous.

If you have a basement backup emergency, please contact the treatment plant 782-0199, or if it is street flooding or overland flooding call highway at 782-5029. 
 

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