WACO, Texas — Several families in a Waco neighborhood are dealing with a major backup problem in their drainage system due to debris from a nearby farm clogging the channels, and now they want the City of Waco to step in before the issue gets worse.
Homeowners in the Trails of Oak Ridge neighborhood of U.S. Highway 84 said their yards and street are a mess after heavy rain moves through because the debris and erosion from the nearby farmland is draining into their street's system. The frustrated homeowners believe the channels weren't built right to begin with.
"I believe the drain was never built big enough and that's where the problem is," said resident Kurt Hoffman. "It floods here and then once it stops because it can't flow through, then all of the mud falls out and clogs completely up."
Hoffman said he had to get flood insurance, despite not being in a floodplain. He has also had to pour concrete on his property to keep it from washing away.
The residents are dealing with inches of thick mud, rotten corn cobs and corn stalks. They said they have had to spend hours picking up the litter several times, instead of the City of Waco coming out to fix the failed drainage system.
"We want it to look nice and so when something's getting damaged and nothing is being done about it when we pay taxes, that's an issue and that's a problem for us," said Jessica Weeks, a frustrated resident.
Weeks told 6 News she has called the City multiple times and followed the correct online protocol to have someone come out and assess.
"They always say they're going to send somebody, but nobody ever comes and nothing has ever happened," Weeks added. "The ideal fix would be to come out and first do an assessment. Don't come out and clean -- we don't need band-aids."
The residents support the farmland and appreciate the benefits it provides. They would just like to be able to co-exist and for the infrastructure to be able to handle the erosion appropriately.
6 News tracked down the person who works on issues like this for the City of Waco. Roger Glick is head of the City's watershed protection division. He told 6 News his team has been aware of this problem for around a year and a half.
“We know there's a problem there, we're looking for a solution," Glick said. "We have some ideas of what can be done. We're trying to get studies completed and coordinate with other construction projects so that we can maximize our efforts."
Glick said he has been on site himself to assess the matter. In his professional opinion, he believes there is more water runoff from the farmland than was probably planned for in the design, so the channels are undersized.
The City of Waco is also facing the issue that the farmland is outside city limits and federal regulations also don't allow them to implement erosion control on agricultural land.
"We're working on a study to find a solution for that particular problem," Glick said. "We need to find a way to keep things like that from happening."
Glick said the other problem the City is facing is that the subdivision was built and designed based on drainage criteria from 1959. Glick said he is working to get it updated to turn things around across the entire, fast-growing city.
"Updating criteria won't help that situation, but it'll keep this from happening elsewhere and so what we as the City need to do is figure out what can we do to try to alleviate this situation," Glick said about the issues happening in the Trails of Oak Ridge neighborhood.
Right now -- the manager of the City's watershed protection division doesn't have any recommendations for the residents dealing with this. 6 News will be following up to see if the City of Waco meets the requests of the frustrated property owners dealing with this failed drainage system.
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