Illinois' River Forest Seeks Storm Water Proposals
The village of River Forest, Illinois is seeking an outside firm to help create a storm water management plan.
The plan is expected to cost between $140,000 and $180,000, but officials hope to create a multi-year plan for providing storm water relief to River Forest’s most impacted areas. The proposal was brought to the village board Aug. 10, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Rain gardens were installed along Chicago Avenue and River Forest village has increased its use of permeable surfaces in its alleys and Metra parking lot.
“We still run into storm water issues with large rain events,” according to village administrator Eric Palm. “We’re also seeing more and more yard flooding that people are looking to the village asking what we are going to do about it. I wish I had a dime for anytime a resident said to one of us, ‘I’ve lived here, insert long period of time, and I’ve never had flooding until this year.’ We’ve been getting those calls more and more.”
The village’s combined sewer system is more than 100 years old. According to officials, the plan would likely recommend additional dedicated storm sewer lines but other solutions will be weighed out.
River Forest currently has a combined storm and sanitary sewer system. In 2015, the village began work on a north side storm water management project, which created the new dedicated storm water system.
“Our system is antiquated,” said public works director John Anderson. “One of the things a master plan can do is it examines everything. It looks at the existing system and creates a detailed hydraulic model that can be developed to figure out which areas can be improved and in what sequence.”
According to Anderson, it may be a year before there is a master plan.
