Wednesday, September 16, 2009

When will these storm drains be cleared?

The two storm drains on Fourth Street N.E. between High Street and Hedge Street had silt barriers installed many months ago to keep soil eroded from the Juvenile and Domestic Court renovation from adding to the silt burden in the storm water system. There is so much silt collected in one that a good crop of vegetation is growing in it. The other is heavily burdened with sand, gravel, soil, and other material that only a small area is open to receive storm water.

Now that the Juvenile and Domestic Court project is essentially complete (and an opening ceremony held several weeks ago) I am thinking that these drains have been abandoned by whomever was obligated to maintain the drains and the silt barriers. I contacted the city's environmental coordinator who promised to find out who should handle this material last week (and offered to do the job myself if that was necessary). The court project is a city project, and I believe they could easily identify who is responsible for this work. If the city claims to be eco-friendly, they also need to attend to eco-impacts from their projects.

I saw a city street cleaning truck work this block and watched the driver avoid the drains rather than address the situation. I did report the situation via charlottesville.org several days ago and not heard or seen any sort of response. Perhaps I will take action and bundle up the silt baffles, the trapped material and deliver it to someone at the city. Any suggestions as to whom I should bring the collected material?

No comments: