Emergency Pipes Installed To Help Collin County With Flooding
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COLLIN COUNTY(CBS11) - As the rain keeps coming, flood waters are covering the roads in and out for some Collin County homeowners, stranding vehicles and destroying property.
Soil Conservation Service Site 24 Reservoir just outside McKinney was designed to reduce flood damage, but some homeowners say it isn't working.
The reservoir can't drain fast enough, so workers added this siphon pipe, and now they've added a second one, but it still may not be enough.
Since we first met Bobby Patel on Saturday, the floodwater has gone down a little but only a little. He and his neighbors say it's been that way for weeks with no sign of a solution. Their only hope is for siphon pipes to help the reservoir's regular drainage system.
"That is a good plan for short term to take all the water out back to the normal level," Patel said.
But Patel and his neighbors, many of whom can't drive to or from their own homes, are more worried about the long term, and what happens the next hard rain. Clyde Hogue with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), says the reservoir is operating the way it was designed, and the only homes with problems are the ones built inside the flood easement zone.
"When this was built in '53, there were no houses around here. This was one big open pasture all the way through here, so there was nothing upstream that it would have hurt," Hogue said.
The NRCS advises the local conservation district responsible for operating and maintaining the reservoir site.
"Now this site has reached its 50th birthday, and that was a life-expectancy of a serviceable life of 50 years, and then therefore they're not duty-bound to spend any more money on it," Hogue said.
So even if the siphon pipes are able to drain this flood water, there's no clear plan to protect the properties from future floods.
"The long term is more worried because no agency has taken any official responsibility to operate and maintain," Patel said.
One of the siphon pipes can drain about an inch of water per day, so if heavy rains continue, they're going to have a hard time making much progress.
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