BY ANGELA T. KOENIG
Enquirer Contributor
CHEVIOT -- Whenever it rains, Ray Lamb starts pacing the floor of his Mayfair Avenue home.
In a steady downpour, the water flooding his back yard might reach his basement door. He often gets several inches of water in the basement and, at least twice since 1992, the water -- mixed with sewage backing up from the basement floor drain -- has stood waist high.
In May 1996, Mr. Lamb, 76, and about a dozen residents from other neighborhoods attended a public forum. They begged city council and representatives of the Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) to identify and solve the flooding problems.
Two-and-a-half years later, a portion of the city's storm water and sewer woes are being addressed.
Recently, MSD partially reinstated the Storm Water Removal Program (SRP). It reimburses residents up to $3,000 for redirecting storm water collection systems, such as downspouts, that discharge into sanitary systems, said MSD's Jack Rennekamp.
About 10 properties in the area of Robb Avenue and Ruth Lane are eligible for the SRP program. Other neighborhoods will follow, he said. The countywide program, he said, was suspended in Cheviot in 1997 so that MSD could study the city sewer system.
What the study mentions, but SRP does not fix, however, are problems such as the storm water that collects in a sink hole in Mr. Lamb's back yard. At the bottom of the hole, which was cordoned off by MSD in 1996, is a drain that completely shuts down when the water gets too high, the homeowner said.
Safety Service Director Steve Neal said that responsibility for those types of problems "gets complicated."
MSD spokeswoman Ann Newsom said the city is responsible for storm water collection systems. MSD, she said, is responsible for sanitary lines and for the operation of combination storm - sewer lines, but not any capital improvements to combination lines. With capital improvements, such as a recent MSD recommendation to install a detention basin near Mr. Lamb's property, and to enlarge the combination lines near North Bend Road, MSD asks the city to split the cost, Ms. Newsom said.
The North Bend Road proposal is estimated to cost about $340,000. "For MSD to come up with $200,000 isn't hard . . . that would be 10 percent of our general fund just to address one place. If you only address one of five or more problems, what do you tell the other people?" Mr. Neal said.
