In response to Champaign’s flooding problems, particularly at individual residences, the Champaign City Council approved a $93,000 drainage study on Tuesday that will focus on Washington Street.

In response to Champaign’s flooding problems, particularly at individual residences, the Champaign City Council approved a $93,000 drainage study on Tuesday that will focus on Washington Street.

According to city officials, the study will try to pinpoint the source of the drainage problems, such as bottlenecks and capacity issues and will recommend possible short-term solutions.

Champaign citizens filled the city council chambers at Tuesday’s meeting to voice their concerns about the flooding issues. During times of heavy rainfall, some households’ basements flood with feet of water, said Carol Jo Morgan, a resident of Champaign for 35 years.

“It’s happening with an increased frequency in individual homes,” Morgan said.

“People are understandably upset,” she added.

In order to cope with this problem, city engineers have been visiting individuals’ homes to investigate the flooding and offer possible solutions. The government-funded study, which will be conducted by Foth Infrastructure & Environment and Clark-Dietz Inc., will be the next step in correcting the drainage infrastructure.

By contracting this job out to a private sector, the task may be able to be completed for less cost and more efficiently, said Tom Bruno, Champaign council member.

Many citizens were concerned that this study does not address flooding issues in other parts of the city. Champaign has a multitude of flooding issues and not enough money to fix every problem at once, Bruno said.

“We can’t do this city-wide, all at once. There’s just not enough money to go around,” he said.

Additionally, some citizens were concerned that the money that is going towards research should be spent on resolving the issue instead.

“For that amount of money we could probably fix the problem,” said Tryggri Emilsson, a resident of Champaign for six years.

Many believe that city engineers already know what the problem is and how to fix it. Additional research is unnecessary, Emilsson added.

Mayor Gerald Schweighart said that research is needed before undergoing large projects and that fixing the entire flooding system would cost upwards of 15 million dollars.

A simple solution does not exist, said Michael La Due, Champaign council member.

“The city is basically a bowl, and it’s a lumpy bowl,” he said.

Each depression has its own unique flooding issues and solving each of them is costly to the city, La Due said.

Champaign’s topography is one of the main obstacles in solving this problem.

“When Champaign was founded, it was founded on a swamp,” La Due added.