DRAINAGE PROBLEMS AFFECT HOUSING AREA, WEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA: A CONSEQUENCE OF TOPOGRAPHY AND SOIL TYPE

Upscale housing just west of W. Lafayette has drainage problems from severe storms. Most homes have basement sump pumps to remove water. Five of 78 houses get considerable basement water that sump pumps empty into storm sewers. But, power failures occur during lightning storms, and basements flood; this has happened several times. The local landform is the Tipton Till Plain, Wisconsin age, covering much of central Indiana. It consists of gently rolling terrain, less than 20 feet in relief. The subdivision includes a larger, upper area and a smaller lower one with sloping land in between. The lower section is apparently a small outwash plain. Several intermittent streams dissect the subdivision. One contains an earthfill dam, built in 1938 by WPA impounding a four acre lake. The subdivision has city water and a sanitary sewer system that carries effluent to a nearby sewage treatment plant. Runoff from streets is collected by the storm sewer that drains into the lake or a pond on the low lying portion. A storm sewer system map is presented in the talk. Storm sewers do not extend along all streets but their purpose is to carry runoff from streets and yards to the upper or lower lakes. Storm sewers tend to follow the original drainage existing before construction. The talk includes an agricultural soils map showing lower areas adjacent to drainage ways. These areas would incur limitations in a septic drainage field if such tanks were required. Fortunately a sewage treatment plant was located nearby. Houses found along these drainages are where water accumulates in basements. Apparently subsurface flow follows original drainways causing basement flooding.