West Virginia’s Berkeley County Public Service Sewer District (BCPSSD) recently contracted with Woolpert, a national engineering and design consulting firm, to develop a watershed plan that will provide the district with the means to resolve flooding and storm water quality issues within the community of Inwood.
Inwood lies within a 3-sq-mile watershed located in southern Berkeley County. The watershed is essentially a depression with no outlet for storm water discharge. There have been various flooding problems in the watershed, in part due to increased development in the watershed.
Woolpert will place rain gages and stream monitors throughout the Inwood watershed to monitor conditions over a six-month period. Woolpert will use this data, combined with data on the locations of storm water conveyance structures, to construct a storm water model that will enable the district to simulate and verify where flooding occurs and how best to resolve the flooding issues. In addition to data collected in the field, Woolpert will be seeking input from business owners and residents through public meetings.
“The storm water model will be a great tool for the district, but public input will be equally important to the success of this project,” said Jamie Weist, Woolpert associate and project manager. “We are looking forward to helping BCPSSD develop a cost-efficient and effective solution to the community’s flooding issues that have been problematic for some time.”
Woolpert will be using the recently developed Inwood Land Drainage and Water Quality Project Facility Plan, provided by a previous consultant, to also assist with determining solutions to the flooding issues. Once Woolpert and the district have identified the appropriate methods to address the flooding issues, a contractor will be selected through a public procurement to construct a system that will alleviate the flooding.
Source: Woolpert, Inc.
