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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Is Santee Road Swale a Public Safety Hazard?

John McAtee asks Commissioner to address swale problem.
In 1957, a six year-old boy was nearly swept away by raging storm waters at the intersection of Santee Road and William Penn High Highway. Then in 1977, tragedy struck. Nineteen year-old nursing student was on her way to Northampton Community College when her car stalled in a heavy rainstorm at this dangerous intersection. She walked to what was then the Butztown Hotel to call for help, but on her way back to the car, she was swept away and sucked through pipes and into Nancy Run Creek. Her body was found the next day.
Bethlehem Township reacted by installing an underground storm water system at this fatal intersection. But just three blocks uphill, John McAtee is concerned that history will repeat itself. His home, located right across the street from the Santee Road storm swale, has been flooded eight times over the last thirty years when the swale spills over and cascades onto his property.

The swale is part of a system originating at Johnston Drive and East Boulevard in Bethlehem, and eventually winds its way down Santee Road.

At their August 1 meeting, McAtee asked Bethlehem Township Commissioners to authorize an engineering study, citing the danger to the community, especially to children living in the apartment complex off Santee Road. "If one of them falls into that swale, you're going to find them down at Nancy Run Creek," he warned. "It's an absolute public safety hazard."

President Arthur Murphy told McAtee that several years ago, after a hurricane, Commissioners formed a committee to investigate storm water runoff in that area, and determined that much of the water is coming in from the City of Bethlehem.

Commissioner Michael Hudak asked McAtee whether he had complained to the City of Bethlehem. "I'm a private citizen, landowner and a taxpayer of Bethlehem Township," answered McAtee, adding that his leverage with City officials is "nonexistent."

Thomas Nolan, who chaired the investigating committee, told McAtee that Bethlehem's shallow detention ponds, up around East Boulevard and Johnston Drive, are the likely reason for McAtee's problem. "They have a tremendous amount of water" feeding the swale, he claimed. But he noted that the City was found blameless in the death of the nursing student, and has used that as an "out" to avoid addressing the problem.

Santee Road swale, directly across street from McAtee home
"We could probably spend millions of dollars, putting it all underground, tearing up Santee. You'd have to go all the way down," Nolan stated, adding that there was really nothing the Township could do because there would still be too much water.

"What's another life worth?" asked McAtee.

"As soon as a storm comes, our guys are out there," noted Murphy, and McAtee agreed with that point.

Long time Bethlehem Township resident Martin Comer told Commissioners that when the surrounding area was farmland, there was no problem. "We're getting more water from Bethlehem than we can handle," he concluded.

10 comments:

Zorn said...

typical non response from the township. shift the blame to someone else and wash your dirty fat hands, it may be true that the water is coming from bethlum but have you bozos ever heard of cooperation?

Anonymous said...

no kidding. bethlehem township spends 20 years paving itself over, and then blames someone else for their stormwater problems?

Anonymous said...

Not another drainage complaint. They should fix it as long as taxes do not rise. BTW if it rains just stay out of that neck of the woods.

Lighthouse said...

Looking at Township Minutes on-line, at least two (1-16-06 and 6-19-06)had public discussion and included the following:

"Mr. Kutzler (then Dir. of Planning and Econ Dev) introduced Dr. David Brandes of the Lafayette College Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering whose students partnered with the Bethlehem Township Stormwater Review Committee to study
stormwater issues in the Santee/Clifton/Sunset area and the Nancy Run Watershed."

"Dr. Brandes outlined an 800 acre drainage area for the Santee detention basin of
which 80% is located in the City of Bethlehem ... (They)investigated
modifications of the basin/outlet structures to improve peak flow reduction by either reduction of runoff through infiltration/capture or through
detention/storage of runoff and controlling release rates. The(y)[]also investigated subsurface conveyance from Santee/Clifton to the Nancy Run. What the(y) [] determined was that the existing Santee basin provides no
peak flow reduction and overtops for storms of more that 2”. The City of Bethlehem basins provide some peak flow reduction and are full for 3” storms. All the basins overtopped at a 10-year or larger storm. Dr. Brandes outlined
several retrofit approaches that could help alleviate some of the problems: 1) Increase the storage of the City of Bethlehem detention basins which would improve the 2-year peak flow reduction but have a minimal effect on larger storms and would require the cooperation of the City of Bethlehem; 2)Increasing the size of the Santee basin by using the swale and parking area at Santee Apartments would give close to a 50% reduction in a 2-year peak flow
but overtop for larger storms; 3) Maximizing the size of the Santee basin through eminent domain would provide close to 70% reduction in the 2-year peak flow, some reduction in the 10-year peak flow but still overtop for 25-year
and larger storms. Mr. Hudak questioned how any of the approaches would affect the properties downstream. Dr. Brandes stated that if the water is moved more efficiently from
Santee, there would be more flooding downstream. Mr. Weiss noted that by maximizing the Santee basin it would only control a 10-year storm. Mr. Nolan
stated that Dr. Brandes’s report reaffirms the issues he saw and that the report should go back to the Stormwater Review Committee so they could look at all
the options. Mr. Nolan added that the area downstream must be looked at along with costs and engineering..."

and from a later meeting

"Solicitor Elliott responded that the measures called for by the case (Ms. LaForm) that Ms.
Zampogna refers to were undertaken by Bethlehem Township. 70% of the
water comes from the City and correcting the problem would cost millions and millions of dollars. Solicitor Elliott added that it would be impossible for the
Township to correct the problem without upstream water retention."

That all said, the above area is but one of a handful of historical problem areas in the Township.

Anonymous said...

Referring to 1977 incident: Did she not step into an open storm sewer, one which had no cover? The water was running like a river, directly over the opening. She could not have known it was there...took a step onto street and was sucked into the void. That particular tragedy could have been avoided with a grate.


VOR

Bernie O'Hare said...

Lighthouse, Thanks very much for that infromative excerpt of the minutes.

casino lovers kneel down said...

we couldn't possibly spend millons to fix a real problem but we do have a new greenway and steelstacks

Anonymous said...

Yet another obvious public improvement needed that will not be done because of the dreaded tax increase. THis country is going down the shitter because of everyone's personal greed.

Anonymous said...

Not another drainage complaint. They should fix it as long as taxes do not rise. BTW if it rains just stay out of that neck of the woods.

No, the people of the Township should pay for it. What do you mean "as long as taxes don't rise?" That's why the infrastructure of this country is disintegrating.

Anonymous said...

we couldn't possibly spend millons to fix a real problem but we do have a new greenway and steelstacks


Witty except this is the township we are talking about. And that SteelStax is one of the best things to happen to the city in a long time.