Thursday, August 30, 2012

By All Means...Blame the Victims

City officials in Portsmouth, Richard Duncan in particular, are famous for blaming the victims of sewage backups into their homes as being the chief culprits. Of course, Mike Jones and the equally famous (or should it be infamous...I can never remember) horsemen, a.k.a John Haas, Nick Basham, and Jim Kalb go along with the malarkey. In fact, Kalb was one of its chief proponents during the horrible 6 years he was mayor and Greg Bauer before him "...SOMC, we don't want to make them comply with the laws...they are one of our largest employers!"


I'll start with my beginning email the morning of Wednesday, August 29 and take you through to today.


From: Jane Murray

Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 9:44 AM
Subject: downspout article and retrofits

Good morning:

The article at this link states that as part of the LTCP, the U.S. EPA is requiring that certain  residents remove their downspouts from their foundation drains. 

"Duncan said based on the results of the EES study, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has directed the city to implement the downspout disconnection plan."

I would appreciate further information and answers to the following:

1. Did U.S. EPA in fact require this smoke test or did the city do it on its own?

2. What were the parameters?

3. Did you or are you going to require similar tests for all other residential and commercial property, churches, hospitals, retirement centers, etc. in the area of the city?

4. If not, why not?

I removed my downspouts from my foundation drains in 2006. This has no bearing on my property. I'm merely concerned about fairness to the affected areas. For some people, this will be a burden. Some properties closely abut driveways and/or sidewalks causing problems with removal and redirection. Please see letter sent to Larry & Loretta Essman in August 2001. I ask that Larry send separate email detailing the cost and other issues for him and include information on legal action by some area residents. He informed me that they were successful in fighting the city and, thus, did not remove their drains.

5. Are you going to require other property owners in the city to retrofit their properties as well? If not, why not?

Though I have no problem with the requirement, the effect is that residential property owners are being required to "retrofit" their properties. All the residential properties mentioned in the article were built prior to the developments at the hospital, Hill View Retirement Center, Churches, doctors' offices, etc.

In fact, I'm sure engineering studies will prove that the non-residential properties above mentioned contribute even more significantly to the storm water runoff problem that the 63 homes mentioned in the story.

For example:

  • The National Guard Armory on Coles Blvd. Are you requiring that they rebuild that lot and drain to the grass? This lot was all grass until built during the mid-2000s...well after Mr. and Mrs. Essman's compliance command by the city.
  • Hill View Retirement Center continues to expand and build more impervious surface. The owners of the Center purchased numerous houses on Sherman Road. They torn them down this summer and are building parking lots. Are you requiring similar run off controls?
  • Did the city require runoff controls in how these parking lots are being built? I called the city's engineering office and asked but was told Duncan is now enforcing the city's ordinances on storm water drainage. That gives me serious pause.
  • Southern OH Medical Center parking garage on the East side (built in the late 1990s) that has no drainage controls? Laundry, parking lots, buildings on the East Campus on 25th Street? Other parking lots including to doctors' offices on the campus that have no drainage controls? Will you require that all of these be retrofitted?
  • The churches on 25th Street?
  • The businesses and doctor and other offices on Coles Blvd?
It is my assertion, I am making and will make in public statements, that all properties draining to the Lawson's Run system should be required to make appropriate retrofits. Everyone should share in the burden and the associated costs commensurate with the size of impervious surface as the key factor.

My neighbors and I recognize that the U.S. EPA and the OH EPA will act to be fair. Unfortunately, as the records prove (OH EPA records we have already shared publicly) the city has consistently acted over the years to blame the victims and to protect the "major employer" in the city; i.e., the Southern OH Medical Center.

Thank you for answers to the above questions. We look forward to working with you on resolutions to this painful and devastating problem to many residents in Portsmouth.

Sincerely,

Jane
 
M. Jane Murray

 
From: Kevin W.W. Johnson <kwwj@roadrunner.com>
To: Jane Murray; Maraldo.Dean; Barbara VanTil; Sudhir Desai; Larry Essman ; scott.foster; fred snell

Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 10:04 AM
Subject: Re: downspout article and retrofits

Please see City Ordinance 1319.04 - Grading and Drainage
    (e) Roof and Yard Drainage
    ..."Connection of any pipe carrying roof water or yard drainage to a sanitary sewer is prohibited."

This should have been mentioned at Council and in the paper's review of the LTCP agreement regarding
drainage to the sanitary sewer system.

Am awaiting Mr. Duncan's release of information concerning two other near-term projects to alleviate
business and residential storm drainage into the sewer system.

Many thanks.

Kevin


 
From: Jane Murray

Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 10:19 AM
Subject: Re: downspout article and retrofits

Thank you, Kevin. One of the primary problems in Portsmouth has been enforcement...or should I say "selective" enforcement

The city adopted significant storm water regulations, too, in 2001 but they have been summarily ignored on purpose by former mayors and their staffs.

Jane

M. Jane Murray
 
From: Kevin W.W. Johnson  Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 10:24 AM
To: Jane Murray; Maraldo.Dean; Barbara VanTil; Sudhir Desai; Larry Essman; scott.foster; fred.snell

Subject: Re: downspout article and retrofits
Such I do not disagree with. That is why I supported returning to City Manager form of government so strongly. This is to occur in January 2014.

Am hoping that a professional City CEO will provide us with due diligence and consistency; amongst other professional traits.

Kevin

 
From: L Essman

Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2012 12:02 AM
Subject: RE: downspout article and retrofits

 
I went through this with the City in 2001.  After sewage backup into my home in 1997, 2000, and 2001 the City sent us a notice that we must remove our downspouts from the sanitary sewer within 30 days.  We immediately contracted a plumber who removed the two downspouts on the south side of our property from the sanitary sewer at a cost in excess of $2,000.  A line had to be run the full length of our property to the service strip in the rear of the house so that we would not run the water onto our neighbor's property.  We could not simply run it onto the ground due to the proximity of homes on Grandview Avenue.  My neighbor to the north ran her downspout out onto the ground and it causes seepage of our basement wall in hard rains.  We also removed the downspout on the northwest corner of the property from the sanitary sewer. in 2001.  We have so far incurred costs of approximately $3,000 in removing our downspouts.

However, our efforts to remove the downspout on the northeast corner ran into a tremendous problem.  Former City Department head Mike Shaw came to our property and saw the problem.  The City had had added pavement to Grandview Avenue to the point that there were no longer any City curbs to channel the water away from the house.  In fact, the street is higher than our property.  Mr.. Shaw had a drip sewer installed in front of our driveway to keep the water that runs off of the east and west sides of 25th Street from coming in through our basement windows after Grandview was repaved [in 2001 I believe].   Since removing the one remaining downspout on the northeast corner of the house required significant expense, we acquired a rainwater collection system.  We now run the rainwater into that collection system, which you may inspect at  any time, but the downspout is still connected.  The only other option was to completely tear up our driveway at very significant expense. 

I believe this is simply an effort to divert the attention from the real problem, the incompetence of the city officials by their failure to require adequate runoff control of new development in the area.  We moved to Grandview in February of 1992 and had no problem until the parking garage was constructed on the southeast side of the SOMC Campus.  I am all for expansion of SOMC into a first class hospital, but the City failed to required  any runoff control on that construction to protect the residences below. This may be due to the lack of a competent city engineer.  Mike Shaw and I worked on an ordinance in 2001 to require runoff control on any new development in the city.  The ordinance was approved by the City Council, but never implemented by the city officials [some of whom were not even aware of the Ordinance].  I believe this Ordinance is still in effect. Development continued on the SOMC campuses on both the east and west side of Grandview.  In hard rains, runoff to  Grandview from 25th Street to 23rd Street looks like the New River in West Virginia. Grandview is usually almost completely flooded in hard rains. The sewer on 25thh Street looks like a geyser in hard rains, due to the runoff from the SOMC East Campus.Water shoots up out of the sewer onto Grandview adding to the flooding. My wife and I must get up in the middle of the night if it storms to wondering if the runoff will  enter from the surface or the sewer.

I do not believe the residential downspouts are the primary cause of the CSO problem in this area and I really doubt if it will solve the problem.  I made every effort to remove my downspouts in 2001 but I still suffered a CSO in 2004 and 2008.  Very few complied with the 2001 directive to my knowledge. You reach a point when you have to ask yourself how much is it worth to live in this town???


 Larry Essman
 
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2012 6:17 AM
Subject: Fw: downspout article and retrofits

Thought you all should read the following from Grandview Avenue resident Larry Essman as it relates to the Long Term Control Project (LTCP) and the Portsmouth Daily Times article "Grandview residents told to disconnect downspouts" (see: http://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/view/full_story/19958616/article-Grandview-residents-told-to-disconnect-downspouts?)

Kevin
 
From: Michael Jones <mljones@pmcourt.org>
Date: Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 8:40 AM
Subject: RE: downspout article and retrofits
To: "Kevin W.W. Johnson" <kwwj@roadrunner.com>, "Hon. Jim Kalb" <jimkalb2@yahoo.com>, "Hon. John R. Haas" <JRH@rhlawfirm.net>, "Hon. M. Trent Williams" <CityAuditor@mail.com>, "Hon. Nicholas R. Basham" <NRBasham@yahoo.com>, "Kevin W. Johnson" <kwwjohnson@gmail.com>, Reverend Mayor Malone <DMalone@portsmouthoh.org>
Cc: Richard Duncan <rduncan1@falcon1.net>

This is a mandate from the US EPA.  The City was instructed to require the residents to disconnect the downspouts.  While there may be different circumstances for each of the 64 residents affected, the marching orders from the US EPA is that the downspouts need to be disconnected and this is only one part of the overall plan to address the Grandview area. 

Mike

 

Thursday, August 9, 2012

The U.S. Constitution Matters...Everywhere But Portsmouth, OH

For many of us the language or even the specifics of what was included in the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution was learned in long ago history classes. Take a moment to review the transcription of the Bill of Rights on the U.S. Archives website if you are so inclined.

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html

But there is one amendment to the U.S. Constitution to which I specifically refer in this post. That happens to be Amendment V. The text of which states:

Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Look again at the text I put in bold type. We have all heard of that...in constitutional jurisprudence and even in lay terms it's called "double jeopardy".

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't witnessed it myself in the Portsmouth Municipal Court on Friday, July 6, 2012.

In Ohio municipal law, the City Solicitor is responsible for filing charges and bringing action before the municipal court. In the case(s) in point here, City Solicitor Mike Jones took it upon himself, as the following documents show, to have Mr. Alan Barlow tried a second time for a minor misdemeanor...apparently because HE didn't like the outcome from the first case wherein the judge dismissed the charges against Mr. Barlow.


Charges Dismissed by visiting (and former Chief Judge) Judge Schisler on May 15, 2012; no fines, no costs
Solicitor Mike Jones told Mr. Barlow, "We are going to do it over."
Keep  in mind, Mr. Barlow was my mayoral campaign co-chair and volunteered in my office for a couple of months. He served on Malone's "Building Committee" but resigned and issued a letter stating why. See my earlier posts from February 29, 2012 and March 1, 2012.

And you should know that Mike Jones has been and continues to be one of the most ardent supporters of spending millions of tax dollars to put city offices in the old Marting's building and tear down the historic Municipal Building. He even led the call for federal stimulus money...not for the sewers or other infrastructure...but for offices in the Marting's building.

And, in case you did not read the August 8 Columbus Dispatch where it seems obvious Mr. Jones went to vent a bit, I encourage you to take a couple of minutes to read it. As "they" would say...there's obviously more to the story.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/08/08/judge-alters-routine-to-toss-out-drug-case.html

Thanks, Mike, for opening the door so we could walk through.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Sewage Backup And the U.S. EPA

The problems with the sanitary sewers in Portsmouth are fairly well known. Because the sanitary sewers also collect storm water, the combined volume during a major or intense (even short time) rain event is so massive that neither the collection system nor the treatment system can handle it. Thus, the result is a Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO)...and backup into people's homes and businesses and onto surface property. This happens all over the city. If not for the storm water, the sewage treatment plant typically operates at about 20% capacity...plenty of capacity for sewage.

I will outline some of the issues now with more to follow. It's a great deal of information but you should want to know the history because where we go from here affects us all...and, you need to be advocates for yourselves if for no one else. A couple of documents also follow.

Before I moved here and well before the two backups into my home (October 2006 and June 4, 2008), numerous people in the Grandview Avenue, Shawnee Road, and 25th Street area had the first of numerous huge incursions of sewage water into their homes and onto their properties. The first major backup occurred in 1997. It followed the construction of a new parking garage on the east side of Southern OH Medical Center. All impervious (cannot penetrate) surface and NO runoff controls. The storm water runoff from this garage not only increased the volume of storm water running into the combined sewers, it increased the velocity as well since it came from the hill above the residential area below.

Led by Larry Essman, Jim Lodwick and Bob Hunt, the neighbors sought help from OH EPA as the city did nothing. OH EPA official Bob Little came to the site and had joint meetings with the neighbors and representatives of SOMC. He saw the wooded area downhill and to the South of SOMC and said that would provide the perfect detention pond for the hospital's runoff and solve over 90% of the added storm water problems created by SOMC.

What would you do if this happened to your home or the home of a family member or friend?

Finished Basement of Home on Shawnee Road - east side

And what would you think if this had been the "official" response in 2000?



self-explanatory


OH EPA internal memo from Bob Little to his boss Dave Schuetz
self-explanatory

"...If they don't respond satisfactorily, we should pursue escalated enforcement action." So why did nothing happen to prevent the devastation of June 4, 2008?

Several feet deep flooding at 25th Street and Shawnee Road June 4, 2008

25th Street & Shawnee Road - half block from Southern OH Medical Center

Shawnee Road at 25th Street - city truck at "floating" stop sign and water hydrant



See more unbelievable photos of massive loses on Grandview Avenue at http://portsmouthcitizens.info/blog. You need to see for yourself. You won't believe the devastation at Cindy Newsome's house. She and the Hunts were hit the worst.

http://portsmouthcitizens.info/Grandview/6-4-08/6-4-08GrandviewFlood.pdf

These photos show the amount of water standing in the backyards of houses facing Grandview Avenue.

http://portsmouthcitizens.info/Grandview/6-4-08/6-4-08%282%29GrandviewFlood.pdf

Thank you, Teresa, for archiving such important documentation.

Personal property loss on Grandview Avenue

More property loss on Shawnee Road
Why did OH EPA NOT take enforcement action in 2000 as stated? 

Why did OH EPA and the City not require SOMC to provide a drainage basin as Bob Little suggested?

Could the flooding disaster of June 4, 2008 been avoided if OH EPA had enforced the laws and SOMC been required to provide proper storm water runoff controls?

I'll be posting again this week with information on the four-year saga since and where we now stand. Check back.