Dalton City Council to hear stormwater control plan for the area around West Hill Cemetery on Tuesday

Jan. 16—Stormwater runoff crosses property lines and flows over both public and private property.

That's why efforts to control it, and keep it from eroding property, sometimes have to involve both public and private property and multiple property owners, according to Dalton City Administrator Andrew Parker.

Parker said he and the city's Public Works Department will present the first phase of a plan to control stormwater runoff in the area around West Hill Cemetery, which is called the Walnut North Basin, to City Council members for approval when the council meets Tuesday at 6 p.m. in City Hall.

"In 2021, the council modified our stormwater management ordinance to allow us to work in drainage areas off the city right-of-way under certain conditions," said Parker after a meeting of the city's Finance Committee on Thursday. The committee consists of the members of the City Council.

"In the past, the city had said that if it wasn't in the city right-of-way the city isn't going to do any repairs, maintenance or replacements," Parker said. "But we realized that to create effective solutions to stormwater runoff we can't be limited to the city right-of-way. Stormwater flows off of city property onto private property and back. It flows off of private property onto city property and back."

Anytime a stormwater plan calls for action on private property, the City Council members have to approve the plan.

"That approval allows the city to acquire easements of right-of-way to do that project," Parker said. "For example, in the Walnut North Basin, that water that drains out of the cemetery is conveyed through private property behind some people's houses on Ridge Street, then it comes back into the right-of-way on McFarland Avenue and Franklin Street, then it goes off the right-of-way on Valley Drive, and there's a lot of residents in that area that have struggled for years with stormwater runoff.

"To fix that, we are going to have to work off the right-of-way on pipes that have failed. We are going to have to create some new bypass lines to divert a lot of water back into the right-of-way so that our Public Works crews can maintain the pipes in the right-of-way."

Parker said to do that work, property owners will have to give the city easements to work on their property. And he said the City Council members will have to authorize the city administration to acquire those easements.

Parker said this will be the second project under the new law. The first was the repair of a large sinkhole on Rocky Face Circle last year.

"We had to go through a gentleman's yard to replace a pipe that had completely failed," he said. "We needed an easement to do that work, and the City Council authorized us to obtain that easement."

Parker said if the City Council members approve the plan Tuesday, the city will hold a public information meeting for residents of the neighborhood and others who are interested in early February.

City officials have already begun planning to create new detention ponds in West Hill Cemetery to help control stormwater runoff.

Since 2006 the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state Environmental Protection Division have required the city to have a stormwater management plan and work to control stormwater runoff. Before that, the city had no stormwater control plan, and officials have said they are dealing with issues across the city that have developed over decades.