Pasco County, Fla. (WFLA) – Here, Pasco County leaders, with hurricanes and rainy seasons, are working to ensure that their stormwater systems can handle increased water volumes.
This plan has been created for years, but the process is not without its challenges.
County leaders said the focus is not only on floods from hurricanes, but also on typical summer thunderstorms.
The county is not a stranger to the flood. To fix the issue, they are working on a stormwater master plan that has not been updated for nearly 20 years.
There are 15 projects they want to implement in the next decade, and they are published from their sessions to create their sessions.
The goal of this project is to create a cost-effective way to get people out of flood zones.
“The way we’re trying to do that through the stormwater master plan is through our capital program, so we’re investing in our community, coming up with a stormwater plan for that community, and adding infrastructure to alleviate flooding in that community.”
The process is easier than that. The biggest hurdle is that you need a place where the water goes without flooding someone else.
“We don’t have an altitude. It’s flat, there’s plenty of water, and there’s over 50 inches of rain every year. In Florida, you’re 40 or 60 years old or anything else extreme,” Mickel said. “So it’s very difficult to predict what kind of rainfall you’ll get. And then we’ll add hurricanes, tropical storms on top of that.”
During the meeting Tuesday night, residents raised issues such as missing pumps to help with the flood, particularly along Little Road.
“I don’t care where they went. I want to know when they’re coming back. The reason they got in was because the water was to help them get away from the area.”
The county has said it has to be pumped for the last few years, but everything will go back.
“There were some complaints about the aesthetics of these pumps. We tried to make them look better. Soon, there were some of those concerns as the storm season began to approach,” replied Mickel.
The county then confirmed that the pump would be re-installed and run.
Through data collected from last year’s hurricanes and feedback from residents, the county will coordinate some of its projects.
The concern is on the east side of the county, including Dade City and Zephyr Hills.
The next public input session will be Tuesday, June 10th, from 6 to 8pm in Dade City. It will be held in the boardroom on the second floor of the historic Pasco County Courthouse.
