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QUARRY OPERATED DURING STORM
Damage would have been much worse if not for the Salt Creek Flood controls
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, July 29, 2010
For more information contact: 630-607-9681
ELMHURST-Despite rumors to the contrary, the Elmhurst Quarry Flood Control Facility was fully operational during the recent storm that ravaged the area, according to DuPage County Board Member Jeff Redick (District 2).
“Our stormwater mitigation plans are regional in nature and require cooperation and inter-play between the county and local municipal systems,” said Redick. “I know over the course of the last month some of these people have flooded twice. They don’t particularly care if the water came from Elmhurst, Villa Park or Arlington Heights; they just want to make sure the flooding stops. So do I. However, in order for us to truly and honestly assess the July 23rd and 24th flooding and to address the issues that exist, it is vitally important that people understand what did, and did not, work,
According to DuPage County records, the Elmhurst Quarry Flood Control Facility opened its sluice gate at 12:43a.m. on Saturday July 24th. That gate took in 3,000 cubic feet of water a second between the time it opened and Sunday July 25th at 9:00p.m. when the gate closed and the creek levels were naturally lowering. It is important to note that the quarry took an additional 15,000 cubic feet of water a second from the creek over the spill-way between 5:00a.m. Saturday and 6:00a.m. Sunday. During that time the DuPage County Flood Control facility diverted approximately half of the creek water from traveling downstream.
“If the quarry had not operated in accordance with its state approved operation plan, the flooding damage would have been significantly worse,” said Brien Sheahan, DuPage County Board District 2. “Thousands of homes were saved from flood waters as a result of the quarry flood control. DuPage County is committed to working with our municipal partners in Villa Park, Elmhurst and Oak Brook to evaluate and eliminate the problems in the systems that allowed for this flooding to occur.”
From an engineering perspective, there are two types of flooding that impact homes and businesses: local system flooding; and regional flooding. Local system flooding occurs when rain fall is so intense that the water overwhelms the local storm sewers and drainage ditches. Whereas regional flooding happens when run-off forces creeks and rivers to overflow their banks and flood areas. The DuPage Quarry Flood Control Facility is designed to eliminate regional flooding.
The recent storms appear to be the result of local system flooding.
“I am glad that the county system provided relief and saved millions of dollars of additional damage, by keeping Salt Creek in its banks,” said Sheahan. “If not for the quarry, this would have been another event like the one we experienced in 1987.”
In total, the quarry diverted approximately 900 million gallons of water from Salt Creek. Had the water not been safely removed from Salt Creek that water would have ended up in people’s basements.
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