Five Points’ drainage choke point, first of many.
On Monday night, January 9, at 701 Whaley the Rocky Branch Watershed Alliance held a public meeting to present its analysis of the current and future flood conditions along Rocky Branch Creek between Five Points and the Congaree River, running right through the pending proposed Walmart site. The room filled up, and the presentation took about an hour with a substantive question-andanswer session at the end.
The initial narrator was architect Christian Mergner of Wilmot Avenue, a member of the alliance’s steering committee. Mergner began with the alliance’s mission statement: To eliminate flood damage and associated risks to public health, safety and welfare; improve water quality; and care for related natural resources within the Rocky Branch Watershed, while encouraging complementary and environmentally responsible development of adjacent land. The issue has been part of the surrounding neighborhood’s environmental awareness for as long as anyone can remember. As the facing slopes at University Hill and Wales Garden drained down to Maxcy Gregg Park early in the last century, flooding was fairly common. Five Points was a drained swamp, and it was not unreasonable to expect water to gather where it always had.
Dr. John Stucker of the steering committee and Rep. James Smith
So when the City of Columbia climbed above a $30 million budget several years ago to control flooding in Five Points, the mayor defended the cost because even though the $30 million couldn’t be seen, the unseen expensive expanded infrastructure was going to greatly improve the drainage of the floods in Five Points. Finally, the mayor shared, the floods in Five Points would drain out quick enough to prevent any real damage.
Unfortunately, Columbia’s mayor and city council failed to look any farther than Master Cleaners, say, down Blossom Street or along Rocky Branch Creek. For the September 2, 2005 edition, about the time the cost of the Five Points flood control improvements had risen above $32 million, The Columbia Star slogged on the bottom of Rocky Branch Creek from Maxcy Gregg Park to the Congaree River, photographing flood choke points at every opportunity, and there were plenty of opportunities.
June 2010, just after Walgreens opened, a flood. Like we didn’t know.
Almost a month before on August 6, there had been a major flood, a “100- year flood” as city officials called it. City officials, both elected and permanently employed, assured their populace 100-year floods really don’t occur much more often than once every 100 years.
At 701 Whaley, Mergner’s presentation included a different interpretation of the designation 100- year flood: A 100-year flood has a 1 percent chance of occurring. A 50-year flood, Mergner explained,hasa2percent chance of occurring. So on September 25, 2011, for instance, Five Points drained into Rocky Branch Creek during another 100- year flood. Cars in the parking lots between Olympia Mills and the creek went under water and were totaled by the insurance companies.
Photographs of the September 25 flood were projected onto the wall at 701 Whaley Monday night and later reused in a presentation to city council during a work session the next afternoon at City Hall.
Federal Emergency Management Agency’s official 100-year flood map for Rocky Branch Creek. Note Capital City Stadium, future Walmart site.
Little mention was made Monday night about the proposed Walmart on the old baseball stadium property on Assembly Street, but the 23- acre site anchored by Walmart was thoroughly discussed as a flood-prone property. The real estate development team in charge of the new Walmart know this, of course. And their solution is to raise the site. Bring in more than 200,000 cubic yards of back-fill, containing the whole thing between a 10-foot-high retaining wall on one side and a 20-foothigh retaining wall on the other, roughly parallel to Rocky Branch Creek. The raised back-filled platform has its equivalent in displaced water, about 40 million gallons. With that huge number in gallons of displaced water during a 100- year flood, fears rise in the neighborhood with the first question asked, “Where does all that water go?”
The next question, “ Where is Walmart in all this?” was not answered. Word surfaced near the end of the meeting that suggested Walmart was such a great anchor for retail traffic, the developer was offering Walmart a rent-free deal to take the building in the back, draw its shoppers, and raise the demand for rentable square feet between the anchor and Assembly Street. Among retail real estate development circles, the 23 acres identified by the old baseball stadium is a fine place, but among hydrologists, it’s an interesting place, maybe too interesting.
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