Remember that little old document I’ve spoken of several times in the past, the Comprehensive Plan? Well Chapter 9 of that document “Natural Environment and Existing Land Use (or use the full text document available at christiansburg.org) provides some interesting insights into flooding, stormwater management, and the uh…lack there of within the Town of Christiansburg. This version, adopted in 2003 (and to be reviewed and modified if necessary every 5 years and completely revised every 10 years – these are minimum standards per State Code). It was reviewed by the Planning Commission and it was determined that no modifications were necessary, that it was just fine the way it was.
There is a section on soils that uses data from a 1985 soil survey done for Montgomery County in September 1985. I have a copy of this document and will be scanning some of the maps to load online. This data included soil types for the Town of Christiansburg. In paragraph 1 of this Soils section it is noted: “While a general survey of this type cannot replace detailed on-site soils investigations, this, this survey can significantly enhance the ability of the Town to make broad based planning and land use decisions.”
The document then provides information of 2 dominate types of soils groups in Christiansburg. They are noted in a very nice little two color General Soil Map that simply identifies classes of soils. Nothing is there to address slope and the issues related to runoff, stormwater, and possible flooding. Pretty but pretty uselss for effective planning. But it requires a lot less work to look at and make judgments.
However, that is just one map of many in this particular document. Sheet 31 of the actual Soil Map is specific to the Town of Christiansburg. What it contains, is a more specific analysis than the generic map the Town of Christiansburg elected to use in the Comprehensive Plan. This map even gives information on those areas which have a high likelihood of problems with runoff and rapid soil saturation in certain areas. Additionally it councils against development in certain areas due to soil types and slopes. This is a really kewl document. 1985 is the most current map available. Much of what is now Christiansburg was not noted as being part of Christiansburg when the map was made. The only way to make effective land use decisions would have been to use these more specific maps.
The Hydrology section of the Comprehensive plan notes that the “Town of Christiansburg is drained primarily by Slate Branch and Crab Creek and its tributaries: Town Branch and Walnut Creek.”
And (can we say karst? Well, if you do say karst there are a whole lot of legal issues that come up as to how that has to be manaed.): “According to the Groundwater Map of Virginia, the Town of Christiansburg lies within the Carbonate Groundwater Area of the Valley and Ridge Province. Due to the prevalence of carbonate bedrock (limestone and dolostone), the presence of underground drainageways in Christiansburg is fairly widespread. Such paths are formed when slightly acidic groundwater dissolves the bedrock, forming breaks, fractures, and caves.” (This slightly acidic groundwater is caused when water releases some of the carbon it has temporarily trapped as it travels to and across the earth. Increase carbon in the air by increasing traffic, loss of vegetation that removes carbon from the air, and carbon based fuels in asphalt or on the roads, and voila, you have increased the amount of carbon available for release and decreased the water pH – more acid. The action of the acid on the rock results in things like sinkholes, collapsing pavement and driveways, etc.).
Another section “Floodplains” starts with: While the majority of Christiansburg lies in upland areas not generally subject to flooding, the Town does experience limited flooding from Crab Creek and its tributaries. Some of the most severe flooding has been the result of heavy rains associated with major weather fronts or local thunderstorms, as occurred in 1940, 1972, and 1978.
In the “Storm Draininage” subsection of “Floodplains” I found: “Storm drainage within the Town of Christiansburg is accommodated in part by a publicly maintained closed conduit system as well as by paved and grassed ditches. Developers are required to install underground storm drains as well as curb and gutter or paved ditches where the potential for erosion is high. (Those areas can be easily identified on the map I noted previously – yes, I will be putting it online.) Public storm drainage improvements were made by construction of underground storm piping along Roanoke Street, between Robers and Main Streets, which was completed in the early 1990′s.”
“Localized storm drainage problems have been experienced along Route 460 near the Corning facility, the New River Valley Mall area, along College Street, along Ellett Road, near Silver lake Road, and in the Hans Meadow area. The Town has acquired property for the installation of a storm water facility to alleviate the problems experienced in the Hans Meadow area.”
“After periods of concentrated precipitation (storm events of 50-100 year recurrence intervals), ponding and the eventual inundation of Route 460 have occurred. The severity of this flooding has warranted temporary closure of the road on several occasions; this situation was corrected.”
“The Town is now required to do regional storm water planning as required by the Town’s classification as an urbanized area. The Town anticipates requiring the Phase II Stormwater planning be implemented on a Town-wide basis, though only required to do so for the areas classified as urban.”
Well that’s a few of the highlights. Believe me, there is a lot of other very interesting information found in that document. And, if you compare it other documents existing with other agencies, it can get real entertaining, like a horror movie.
Ultimately, this shows the significant role that Planning Commission members of the past and those current play in whether stormwater issues have been dealt with effectively. Was proper judgment used in determining where new construction occurred? Was the actual topography of the land taken into consideration. Has anyone on the Planning Commission or the Town Council even heard of, much less looked at the map I referred to above that shows very specific information on the land within the Town of Christiansburg?
One of the most important duties a Town Council member has is in appointing qualified people to the Planning Commission. Of course, if the Planning Department is doing the job it should do and providing this type of information to the Planning Commission in the form of a staff analysis (assuming, of course, that they know that these other maps exist) then it falls upon the Planning Commission and Town Council members to read these documents before making landuse decisions.
Sorry ya’ll but you’re not going to solve stormwater issues, flooding, and pollution by throwing more concrete and asphalt on top of the land creating more runoff.
By the way, anybody else noticed all the roads crumbling? It is particularly noticeable in those areas where the Town has built up these little asphalt banks to prevent some properties from flooding. It looks like if you complain enough, they come out and dump a mound of asphalt where the roadway abuts your property. What does that do to your neighbor’s property?
There are some serious problems, and they have been around for awhile just getting worse as time goes by…….maybe money should have been put into stormwater management rather than some other things.
And another by the way, I did a bit of checking and there is a culvert under the road on Depot Street near Craig and Main that takes water from ditches and roadways and dumps them out on railroad property where it cascades down to drains dumping straight into Crab Creek. A few months back, there was an incident where a school bus dumped a tank full of diesel on Main right about where it would go into that drain. But, they washed it all off with water….straight into the storm drains……straight into Crab Creek. I asked the Town about management of such spills and if any reporting was necessary to EPA, etc. and I pretty much got the “we’ve taken care of everything” respoonse.
