Grosse Pointe Farms Resident Shares Door-to-Door Flood Survey

On the same night City Manager Shane Reeside told council a report from the engineering firm regarding would not be ready until next month, a Fisher Road resident shared the results of his door-to-door survey of the inland district. 

Andrew Dervan is hopeful his survey might help officials put together a better picture of the problem with the city's sewer system. A retired chemist who often did work for GM, Dervan lives on Fisher Road.

He told the council Monday that if as a chemist he had a large scale problem that caused the level of disruption and damage similar to what have caused, he would have been required to provide a detailed analysis and explanation.

After reading the report by the city's engineering firm, Hubbell, Roth & Clark, regarding the May floods and still having a variety of unanswered questions coupled with the repeat performance in September, Dervan set out to find some answers. 

He knocked on the doors of 320 homes in the inland district on Fisher, McKinley, McMillan, Moran and Mount Vernon roads. Of 232 responses, 155 homes experienced flooding that exceeded one inch of water in their basements while 21 had an inch or less of water, according to Dervan's survey information.

Dervan gathered information about the color of the flood water, the amount of disconnected drain spouts and the placement of restricted drain covers. 

During his brief presentation to council Monday, Dervan explained that he believes the information provided by Hubbel, Roth and Clark thus far has been superficial in nature and not really revealed the problem.

In his opinion, the wide variation in the amount flooding experienced by homeowners throughout the district is cause for concern. The fact that neighboring residents experienced such different levels of flooding or that the odd-numbered side of McMillan flooded with clear water and the even-numbered side flooded with brown water are all subtle signs that there is a much bigger problem with the city's water removal system than simply the failed pump station.

Council members each received a copy of Dervan's survey results, which includes graphs and charts. They complimented him on his work and thanked him for it, explaining they would pass it along to the engineers.

Dervan said afterward he believes the details as provided in his survey could help officials see a pattern or reveal the root cause of the problem. He said while there is limited discussion related to the floods, he thinks officials are taking in a lot of information but being appropriately cautious in how they release information because of the . 

The superficial answers as provided by Hubbel, Roth and Clark would not be acceptable in big business, Dervan said, so they should not be acceptable in this situation either.

Council did not discuss the results of Dervan's survey at great length. They did thank him and said it would be provided to the engineering firm. 

The floods have spurred several reports and investigations by Farms officials and the contracted engineers. Anderson, Eckstein and Westrick, Inc. provided an overview report on the Kerby Road Pump Station. 

Meanwhile, Reeside told council the engineering firm's report regarding the Kerby Road Pump Station investigation will be available in January instead of the originally scheduled Monday night. The report from the firm will provide heavy details about many aspects of the flooding, Reeside said.

Reeside said the firm recently discovered that Wayne County Water Department is considering upgrades to a nearby pump station and the firm wants to compare their recommendations with those potentialy planned for Detroit to see if the upgrades between the two facilities "dovetail."

Reeside also noted the recent heavy rainfalls, explaining that twice the area has received more than two inches of rain in short amounts of time without any problems.

The council closed the open portion of its meeting to the public Monday to enter a closed meeting session to discuss litigation—likely the class-action lawsuit pending against the city related to damage sustained in the May floods.

The attorney handling that case, Peter Macuga, said his firm is preparing to file a second class-action lawsuit in the September flooding soon.