Letters: County shares blame for flooding

Development along Two Notch Road from Fontaine Road to Sesqui Park and Decker/Parklane from Brookfield Road to I-20 increased exponentially before Richland County began regulating stormwater. O’Neill Court opened, and the roads widened to five lanes or more. Property along these routes drained directly into Jackson Creek without hindrance.

After regulation, large tracts of land beyond Sesquicentennial State Park were grandfathered, and others provided detention ponds that have proved inadequate, were poorly designed and not maintained. Many facilities that drain into Jackson Creek are useless. Jackson Creek has no pond designed for stormwater control.

Should anyone be surprised that the Cary Lake dam failed? The State’s news coverage since the October flood have blamed only the dams and DHEC neglect for the flooding. But the county’s public works department has frequently permitted runoff in excess of predevelopment levels, failed to inspect, failed to require maintenance and ignored warnings and complaints for more than 30 years.

A few of the dams that failed may have been weak; some of them suffered from the willful neglect of DHEC, the county’s public works department and the state Transportation Department, which should have regulated the stormwater. They allowed excessive volumes of water to flow into ponds adequately designed decades ago.

This story was originally published July 24, 2016 at 4:11 PM with the headline "Letters: County shares blame for flooding."