Water Is Topic of Fleming Road Alliance Missive to County Board

A fourth email to county board members about Fleming Road:

To:  Ken Koehler, Chair, McHenry County Board; County Board Members

From: Fleming Road Alliance

Re: Update on Fleming Road Alliance Position on Improvements for Fleming Road.

Dear County Board Representatives:

Water is the Issue

Curb and Gutter, Ditching, Drainage: Drainage is not a problem on Fleming Road.
Not yet.

Rain water flows naturally down the sides of Fleming Road hills.

Stormwater flows naturally with the lay of the land. MCDOT wants to do extensive grading, which will redirect the flow– an unnecessary result of widening the pavement – and then install built items to control it

The infiltration of rainwater through the soils along Fleming Road cleanses contaminants before the water reaches the aquifer below.

Redirecting the flow negatively impacts that ability.

Design Option 2, which was soundly rejected, included installation of retaining walls that will CREATE runoff streams and assure drainage problems.

MCDOT then proposes to solve these problems by installing curb and gutter that will further impede the natural drainage pattern.  The ends of the retaining walls can be a hazard and must be protected.  By what?  Where does this end?

Fleming Road’s soft earthen banks are natural retaining walls that are much more forgiving than man-made materials like stone, brick, metal and wood.

They are already in position and do not impact the natural drainage path that was laid down when the receding glaciers created the topography to which this road conforms.

We request that MCDOT not create problems to drainage systems that are working well only to have to solve those problems with more engineering.

Class III Special Resources Groundwater: A major concern is the impact on any change in drainage patterns on the Class III Groundwater area that encompasses more than half of Fleming Road.

There are only five Class III areas in the state.

They are determined by IEPA application and approval and represent areas where the underlying aquifers are particularly vulnerable to contamination, in this case by road salts, oils, chemicals etc. The Village of Bull Valley has enacted a Class III Groundwater Protection Ordinance.

The Fleming Road Class III is the primary source of water for hundreds of acres of Illinois Natural Area Inventory (INAI) and MCNAI sites and Illinois Nature Preserves.  At issue is the Quality and Quantity of water flow to support these Recognized and Protected Natural Resources.

Also at issue is the quality and quantity of water flow for Human Consumption.

With water from our aquifers being withdrawn faster than it is replenished, it is critical that our Class III source be protected as it is a highly efficient water recharge area.  Several thousand county residents depend on the protection of this Class III.

We request that there be no change to the drainage in the Class III area.  Specifically, do not increase the volume of pavement surface, and leave the surrounding shoulders undisturbed

Fleming Road Alliance Organizing Committee

Ed Bennett, Mary Moltman. Lisa Rhoades, Marti Jadd, Linda Ramsey, Stanley Jarosz, Phyllis Keinz, Kevin Keesee, Emily Berendt, Deb Staley, Bjorn Mattsson


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