Flooding Fixes Could Carry a Big Price Tag

The town is considering what, if anything, to do to mitigate flooding around the Five Mile River based on findings from a $75,000 study commissioned last year. Despite increasing reports of flood events in recent years, it's unclear if the town has any obligation to protect private property in the watershed, and the fixes could be costly.

In presenting the study findings to the Board of Selectmen Tuesday, Nicolle Burnham of engineering consultants Milone & MacBroom said there are a number of constrictions along the river's route. The consultants' new figures showed peak flows to be much bigger, flood water depths deeper, and the flood plain wider compared to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's 1990 study.

Still Burnham said only a limited number of properties have been affected by flooding from the Five Mile River.

Selectman Rob Mallozzi, while noting that he got a sump pump after his own house had a wet basement for the first time in 2005, asked if homeowners in the watershed should have been aware of the risk.

"Were they not given the details before they bought the property? Was this bound to happen? If you're living near the train tracks you're gonna hear train noise," he said

"This state gets more rainfall than we have historically," Burnham said in response. "That's not the town's fault, that's a natural phenomenon."

Burnham suggested those affected properties could be protected with simple solutions like floodgates, though, "if they're not home to put the floodgate in, they could still get flooding."

Or, the town could invest in more systemic improvements to the conveyance system— from dredging a portion of the channel between Nursery Road and Old Norwalk Road to widening culverts along the river. Cost estimates start at $11,500 to modify a single structure at Meeting Grove Lane and go into the millions to replace bridges across Route 123, Brook Street, and Nursery Road, which Burnham called New Canaan's "hot spot".

"Nursery Road—that's a big project, and that would take five or six years if we start it today," Director Michael Pastore told the selectmen. "Probably the best thing we can do is focus on these local problems."

"We have some decisions to make," said First Selectman Jeb Walker, who proposed that the board convene on the issue again after a public information meeting on the study findings scheduled for November.