Outfall Pipe Problems Flood Homeowner’s Yard

VILLAS — Lois Grimes’ backyard at 210 Frances Avenue looks like a flooded rice paddy or a spot on the Mississippi Delta but it is two blocks from the bay in the Bayside Village section of Villas.
The Herald visited Grimes’ home three days after rain from a coastal storm ceased but three quarters of her backyard was still under water. She said the water in her backyard has been there for 20 days, since Oct. 28, when the township had 2.5 inches of rain in a short time span. The crawl space under her house has eight inches of water in it.
A storm drain in the street in front of her house overflows onto her property as well as flooding a section of Frances Avenue. Grimes said that drain is connected to pipes that drain three streets to the north and three streets to the south.
The pipe runs to the beach at the end of Frances Avenue which is connected to an outfall pipe that continually becomes blocked by sand. The result is water comes up out of the drain in her street and onto her property.
Grimes said water from the bay also comes back up the pipe during high tide and out of the drain in front her house.
At the end of July 2008, Lower Township removed the outfall pipe on the beach at Frances Avenue with the intent of replacing it with a new pipe that extended farther out into the bay as part of a project to extend nine outfall pipes and include tidal flush valves on the ends of the pipes to keep bay water from washing back to storm drains.
A group of homeowners along the bay front calling themselves the Friends of the Delaware Bay Association complained the outfall pipes they described as “eyesores” would lower property values. The group obtained a court injunction to stop the project.
The work was halted due to a lack of proper permits which included a $72,500 fine against the township from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
To further complicate matters, the New Jersey Lands Trust owns the beach at Frances Avenue, so technically the township did not have authorization to apply for a CAFRA permit without the owner’s consent. The land trust also did not want to grant an easement for the outfall pipe.
Lower Township Public Works Department has emergency permission from DEP to remove sand blocking two or three outfall pipes and has been digging out the pipe on the beach at Frances Avenue when heavy rain is anticipated.
When the outfall pipe is blocked and “it starts raining hard, it only takes 15 minutes for this street to flood,” said Grimes. Neighbors on both sides of Grimes’ house all experience flooding.
Grimes said she is concerned her home will soon have a mold problem due to the water in the crawl space. She said the township brought two pumps on three occasions to pump out the yard and crawl space.
Township Manager Kathy McPherson told the Herald the township anticipates having CAFRA and Army Corps of Engineers permits by Dec. 2. She said the township is still working on a tidelands permit application.
McPherson anticipates going out to bid on the project by Dec. 10 and awarding a contract by Jan. 4.
“I don’t know if I can live this way through another winter,” said Grimes. “I stand here and look out the window and wonder if the floors are going to get wet this time.”
She said she has sent letters and photos to DEP and the New Jersey Lands Trust. Grimes said the township’s problems with the outfall pipes dates back 20 years.