Water, Water — EverywhereA tall, cold drink of water on a hot day is refreshing, but water in the wrong place is a disaster, as many agencies have learned in the wake of torrential rains in recent years. If your agency decides to renovate, expand or build a new facility, previously unaffected areas also can be impacted by flood and surface water.
While members can identify the cause of water intrusion occurrences, sometimes the solution is not as easy to determine. That's when a careful review of your agency’s potential for flooding events — along with the help of PDRMA’s Risk Management Consultants and engineering services provided to members that have suffered significant flooding claims — can mitigate problems, saving you time and money while keeping grounds and facilities available to patrons.
“Our risk pool has experienced more than $7 million in water-intrusion-related claims since 2000,” explains Dane Mall, PDRMA Risk Management Services Manager. “We’ve enlisted the services of two engineering firms to help our members that have experienced multiple flood or water-intrusion claims not only to identify the source of the problem, but to develop practical solutions to prevent future flood-related losses.”
For Hanover Park Park District’s Community Center, located in the middle of a picturesque moat accessible by a sidewalk, ramp and stairs, heavier than usual rains in recent years created a bit of a challenge.
“When the moat fills up, it drains into a pond,” explains Bob O’Brien, CPRP, CPFI, Superintendent of Parks and Planning. “And if the pond fills, it goes through the sewers. But after a really big rainstorm, we sometimes get water intrusion, even though there are several extra-large-diameter pipes designed to help divert the water.
“A couple of times we had moisture in our lounge area, two racquetball courts, the fitness club and four of our 10 tennis courts,” O’Brien says. “PDRMA brought out engineers to see how we could prevent this from happening again, and we are waiting for the report to come. In the meantime, we keep sandbags handy at both entrances — just in case”
At the Elmhurst Park District, the 90,000-square-foot Courts Plus fitness center is very popular with patrons year round, with its six indoor tennis courts, in two pods of three courts each. “In the summer, the indoor courts are used about 30 percent of the time, but during our busy season, they are booked from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.,” says Greg Utaski, Division Manager, Facilities and Grounds.
“We’ve had more frequent torrential downpours the past few years, and those heavy rains would occasionally flood the indoor tennis courts. Each pod has its own roof that drains onto a shared valley and into a combined gutter system,” Utaski explains. “After an extremely heavy rainstorm accompanied by a power outage, the courts had to be resurfaced at a cost of $21,000.”
During subsequent storms, staff investigated and determined the existing roof drains and gutters were overwhelmed with water, which then poured over the gutters onto the below-grade service entrance ramp. When the storm water drain at the bottom of the ramp could not disperse the water, the ramp began filling up with water that eventually made its way under and through the door openings onto the tennis courts. Utaski tackled the problem on several fronts.
“Two years ago we redesigned the gutter system and installed a specially designed large collection box located directly above the ramp, so the water would have a point to overflow into. The water then flows into oversized gutters and downspouts that disperse accordingly,” Utaski explains. “It’s nice to have a solution.”
The agency's loss history prompted PDRMA to complete a water mitigation study at Courts Plus and provided some additional recommendations. “The simplest is to add one more oversized and extended downspout,” Utaski says, “and we will review the cost estimates for the other recommendations. Luckily, since we upgraded the area, we haven’t had any problems, but PDRMA wants to be proactive and so do we. It’s nice to have a partner like PDRMA to offer solutions that provide a win-win solution.”
The Northern Suburban Special Recreation Association (NSSRA) partners with 13 communities to provide recreation programs for more than 1,500 children, teens and adults with physical, developmental, emotional or other disabilities. While all the programs take place in the members’ recreation facilities, NSSRA administration is in one small office building.
“That building is where we plan and coordinate more than 800 programs a year,” explains Executive Director, Craig Culp. “Half our offices are in the basement, where we also have meeting rooms, equipment and other administrative activities.”
  Upon taking his position in 2008, Culp learned that two massive rainstorms in 2006 and 2008 flooded the basement, interfering with operations and requiring extensive cleanup and renovations. “I understand we lost a lot of furniture and most of the downstairs drywall had to be cut out and replaced, all the carpet pulled out and replaced, along with some equipment — nearly $200,000 in losses between the two floods. Not to mention a lot of time lost that we could have spent focused on our participants and their programs.”
After extensive investigation, Culp concluded the torrential rains were more than the building’s sump pump could handle. So he devised a multipart solution. “We brought in a plumber and contractor and asked them to double the size of the sump pump well, and to put two really big — one horse power — pumps into the well.
“We also piped the two pumps differently. One pumps the water into the sewer, but we floated the other pump higher than the first. That way, if the first pump can’t do the job, we can pump the backup behind our building if the storm sewer is full. The water likely makes its way back into the well, but we keep the water moving in the system rather than causing a flood in our basement. If the sewer is full, we can divert both pumps behind the building.”
There are also two fail safes. The first is a commercial grade battery back-up that can run the pumps for nearly a day if the power goes out. The second is a high-water detector attached to a phone line, which places a call to two staff members, alerting them there are six inches to the top of the well. As an extra safeguard, Culp also added and enlarged the gutters, and redirected the water flow to slope down and away from the building towards the street’s gutters.
“PDRMA is a self-insured risk management pool,” he says, “so each member should be as proactive as they can be, and be a good steward of our shared resources. It wasn’t very expensive — less than $5,000 for digging out the well, adding the sump pumps, increased pipe work and the rest — compared with nearly $200,000 in loss between the two floods, not to mention the significant disruption to our staff, our services and to our programs.”
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