By Tracy Overstreet
tracy.overstreet@theindependent.com

That is the challenging question facing hundreds of south Grand Island homeowners who are now or who have struggled with groundwater.

Some 400 homes are within the boundaries of the former Stewart Place subdivision (where Circle Drive is now) and the Parkview Subdivision, which in 1961, became incorporated as the Village of Parkview.

Both lack a drainage infrastructure system.

Why?

Regional Planning Director Chad Nabity said both began as rural subdivisions with private wells and septic systems. Parkview began in 1926.

By 1961, the city of Grand Island had grown adjacent to Parkview. The city tried to annex. Parkview fought back by approaching the Hall County board to be incorporated as a village. That was granted in Oct. 19, 1961.

But lacking the ability to continue to grow without encompassing Parkview, the city continued to try and annex. After a years-long court battle, annexation occurred Dec. 30, 1969. Stewart Place came in at the same time.

But becoming part of city limits doesn't mean an automatic extension of all city services. Services are added in as residents want them.

In the case of city water, Parkview homes along Commerce and Pioneer Boulevard only joined the city system last year.

While some homeowners have suggested creating a storm sewer district to drain away rainwater and to serve as an outlet for home dewatering of basements, that's not an easy fix.

"Typically storm sewer is incorporated as a part of a paving district," said Steve Riehle, public works director for the city.

Paving districts have twice been rejected by Stewart Place homeowners.

In September 1983, 71 percent of property owners protested the concrete curb and gutter street and drainage system. In March 1984, opposition had grown to 80 percent, said Ron Underwood of the Public Works Department.

That last paving district was estimated to cost about $110,000 in 1984. In today's dollars, that would be about $250,000, Underwood said.

Riehle said creating a storm sewer district separately would make it virtually impossible to determine the benefits to each property. State law requires "benefit" to be determined so that costs of such a project can be assessed to impacted homeowners based on that benefit.

Calls to numerous Nebraska cities have turned up no examples of a community that constructs stand-alone storm sewer systems, Riehle said.

Grand Island has no record of a stand-alone system being constructed here either, he said.

Riehle said storm sewer pipe exists already in Stolley Park Road and could potentially be used for the Stewart Place subdivision, but there's concern about adding significantly to the capacity.

"Storm sewer has limited capacity because we're so flat," said Kevin Prior, of engineering consultants Olsson Associates.

Storm water inlets are built into the street and would carry water away to the city's discharge area into the Wood River.

That discharge could also impact subdivisions downstream along the Wood River, such as the East Lakes area.

Prior has helped the city study the creation of a dewatering district something that homeowner Milt Moravek is now circulating a petition to create.

The city's plan was to design a dewatering system that would put high pressure wells in northwest and southern Grand Island with the goal of lowering the groundwater table. The construction cost was $23 million with an annual operating cost of about $500,000.

It's a cost that city officials and even more city taxpayers balk at.

But Moravek said the city could pursue construction of just half of the project the southern half where groundwater problems seem to be the most significant.

Construction costs would be half, Prior said.

Plus, there's an opportunity for in-stream flow payments if the water from the project is discharged into the Platte River.

Moravek said those payments could be as much as $2,000 an acre foot of water that is placed into the Platte to help wildlife.

The entire dewatering project has the potential to create up to 18,000 acre feet of water every year, Prior said.

"This is something that needs to be further discussed," he said.