In the three 100-year floods in Brookfield in the past 15 years, as I recall, the section of Washington and Forest near Salt Creek flooded only at the same time Salt Creek came over its banks a block south, and that water ran north on Forest to Washington.
It appears to me that the storage will fill up rapidly and then this system will pump water from Washington into the creek, helping it overtop the banks a block or two downstream. I cannot imagine that this will benefit anyone except perhaps the property on the southeast corner of Prairie and Washington, and perhaps the house on the corner of Washington and Forest. All it does is push more water into the creek so it becomes the problem of the people downstream.
The statement that “it should be able to delay flooding in those instances and allow homeowners to prepare and protect their homes” is laughable. These homes are defenseless and no amount of time will protect them.
This is a Band-Aid on a hemorrhage and the only way to mitigate flooding along this corridor is to build a dyke, or an underground tunnel that can carry massive amounts of water into the deep tunnel or a reservoir like a gravel pit.
Craig Goldwyn
Brookfield
