Austin to form Downtown Stormwater Resilience Plan
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(ABC 6 News) – In May the City of Austin received a grant from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to conduct a study to address flood concerns.
The Downtown Stormwater Resilience Plan will allow the city to collect data.
The goal of the project is to identify locations and causes of localized flooding in the downtown area.
“All the concrete pavement and hard surfacing in the downtown, the water doesn’t have anywhere to drain or infiltrate into the ground so all of it runs off,” Austin city engineer Steven Lang said.
The study area includes most of downtown Austin.
In May the City of Austin received a grant from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to conduct a study to address flood concerns. The Downtown Stormwater Resilience Plan will allow the city to collect data.
People are encouraged to share any information of past flooding or any related issues with the city.
The recent lack of rain has made it difficult to collect data.
“Maybe there’s somebody out there that has observed flooding either in the near past or distant in this area,” SEH senior water resources engineer Brad Woznak said.
Over the course of the next year, the city will prepare a stormwater model for the downtown study area.
They’ll then evaluate the model and develop potential projects to reduce localized flooding.
“Implement that into our plan, and then we’ll have something ready to do projects in the future,” Lang said.
The study has to be completed by the end of June next year.
The city will hold more open houses in the future.
For more information about the study or to share feedback and concerns, click HERE.