Watershed Studies Expand, 3 New Public Meetings Coming Up

The City of Madison Engineering Division has planned three more watershed public information meetings to educate the community about what it’s doing to build resilient flooding infrastructure for the future.

A watershed is an area of land where precipitation that falls on it, drains to a common waterway, such as a stream or lake. The watershed acts like a funnel by collecting all the water within the area and channeling it to a single point. 

The City is leading eight watershed studies in all this year. The first four are underway: Pheasant Branch, Spring Harbor, Wingra West and Strickers/Mendota. Initial public information meetings and focus groups were successful for the first four. Now, engineers will focus on three more:  Dunn’s Marsh, GreenTree/McKenna and East Badger Mill Creek. Planning for the Willow Creek watershed is still underway. Initial watershed public information meetings are set for the following:

• Dunn’s Marsh Watershed: 7-9 p.m., Oct. 22, Toki Middle School Cafeteria, 5606 Russett Road
• GreenTree/McKenna Watershed: 6:30-8:30 p.m., Oct. 23, Elver Park Neighborhood Center Gymnasium, 1201 McKenna Boulevard
• East Badger Mill Creek: 6-8 p.m., Oct. 29, Madison Public Library, Meadowridge, 5726 Raymond Road

The public information meetings will allow the community to take part in the watershed studies, which will help City engineers identify existing flooding problems, develop solutions and prioritize improvements.

The studies are expected to take over 18 months. During this time, the city will look at watersheds as a whole to make sure solving a flooding problem upstream won’t push more water downstream and cause more flooding.

By completing these studies, the City engineers can create models of the existing infrastructure within a watershed and see where flooding may happen during different sized storms. From there, the City can simulate how solutions will impact the whole system.

Eventually, the City plans to complete watershed studies city-wide, but will prioritize the above based on extreme flooding from summer 2018. In all, there are eight watersheds the City will focus on in 2019.

If a homeowner is not sure which watershed his or her property is included in, click to the City’s flooding website to use the new interactive map, report and sign up for updates.

Stay informed through a number of resources:

• City’s flooding website
• Learn about flash flooding resilience
• City’s Facebook Page events for meetings
• Report flooding
• Sign up for flood text alerts
• Listen to the Engineering Division’s podcast episode on historic flooding

Listen to the Engineering Division’s podcast episode on basement drainage

Children are welcome to attend meetings, but childcare is not provided.

If you need an interpreter, translator, materials in alternate formats or other accommodations to access this service, activity or program, please call 608-266-4618.

Si necesita un intérprete, un traductor, materiales en formatos alternativos u otros arreglos para acceder a este servicio, actividad o programa, comuníquese al número de teléfono que figura a continuación tres días hábiles como mínimo antes de la reunión.

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Links

• City's flooding website

Images