By: Lacy Martin, Flagler County Marketing Manager
The Flagler County Board of County Commissioners voted Monday to approve the hiring of Geosyntec Consultants, Inc. to develop strategies for planning, designing, permitting, funding and constructing stormwater improvements for Flagler County. An assessment of the county’s existing drainage conditions is included in the initial scope of work, and will be used to develop a comprehensive Stormwater Master Plan (SMP) that would include the consultant developing potential Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) options to address deficiencies identified during the study.
“This process will be much like the Marineland Acres Drainage Project,” said County Engineer Faith Alkhatib. “We will be identifying all the problems we have county-wide with drainage. We will hold public meetings – getting everyone’s input. We then will create a list of projects, so that we operate from an informed position, and are able to select targeted, integrated solutions to address the stormwater-flooding problems within Flagler County.”
The SMP study will include the unincorporated areas of the County, as well as all areas that interface with the Cities of Bunnell, Flagler Beach and Palm Coast. The SMP study will cost $807,914.45 and will take 72 weeks to complete. A portion of the funding in the amount of $296,568.00 will be allocated from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) distribution for the Westside Drainage Project Year 1, and funds the county initially intended for Revenue Replacement have been temporarily reassigned to cover the remaining $511,346.45.
Through the SMP process, Geosyntec will identify drainage issues county-wide, soliciting feedback from stakeholders, commissioners, city officials, and the public. When complete, Flagler County will review Geosyntec’s proposed CIP solutions and potential funding sources recommendations for consideration and implementation into the County’s work program.
Additionally, Geosyntec’s assessment of all urban areas of Flagler County, and all municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) permit holders in Bunnell, Flagler Beach and Palm Coast will be the primary resource used to ensure Flagler County’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit compliance. Flagler County is required to participate in the NPDES program, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency permitting program which addresses water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants.
A kickoff meeting to begin initial planning stages with staff is slated to begin in early January.
So spend almost $1 million to find out what a solution is for the drainage problem? This should have been done years ago when it started to be a problem. That would have been when the first building boom started. The biggest problem IMO is when a new house is built, the swale pitch is never right and no one checks to make sure of it. If the pitch is wrong then the inspector should have failed it and the builder held accountable to fix it. Now jump ahead to today and the county has a big problem. Granted I do know for a fact that the new developments going in have a better drainage system without swales, which is great. But for the hundreds of miles that use the swale system. this is going to take forever to fix. I would also like to mention, that I know of one inspector that does fail builders for not grading the swales correctly, and he makes them come back and regrade. Unfortunately it is still a major problem.