As more details are released about College Station’s proposed sewer line that would wade into the city of Bryan’s Beverly Estates neighborhood, concerned residents along North Rosemary Drive and those of the South Garden Acres neighborhood along Inwood Drive and Vine Street, want their voices heard.
The city of College Station held an informational meeting Monday at the request of specific area residents, who were invited to discuss flooding concerns with College Station city staff and city of Bryan engineering and wastewater staff, according to Jennifer Cain, director of capital projects for College Station.
The Eagle did not attend the meeting as it was closed to the public; however, residents who did attend shared their insight about the meeting.
James Mulvey, a Bryan resident who lives on Vine Street, said the meeting was informational as he was there to voice his concerns about flooding behind his neighborhood if the proposed sewer trunk line were to go in the back of properties along North Rosemary nearest his home.
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“There is an existing city of Bryan sewage pipe located at the back of my lot, running down Pin Oak Creek,” he said Wednesday in an email to The Eagle. “This pipe constantly clogs with debris and during a heavy rain will clog up creating a mini dam. It is a big reason for the current flooding situation. College Station wants to run another pipe right alongside this one.
“We NEED the water to flow freely from Pin Oak and Burton Creek. … The ‘alternative creek’ option is the ONLY option that runs a pipe through these violent Pin Oak and Burton Creeks. College Station’s lift station would keep the pipe completely out of Bryan and away from these beautiful neighborhoods full of wonderful families.”
Mulvey contacted his neighbors about the proposed sewer line a while back, and found a resident at the end of the cul-de-sac on Vine Street whose house has flooded six times in the 40 years he has lived there.
During the Monday meeting, Mulvey said he learned that results for the survey work recently passed by the College Station City Council may come to light in early summer.
“We asked about the finances [of utilizing a lift station] and it was confirmed they are trying to save money; they don’t want a lift station because of the finances involved,” he said. “We learned that they have to do an environmental study. … [The city staff] seem like good reasonable people and I just hope the dialogue continues.”
Susan Monnat, senior project manager for College Station capital projects, told The Eagle on Wednesday that the survey work will occur on the south side of Pin Oak Creek in the backlots of North Rosemary.
“Survey for a few lots on the north side of Pin Oak Creek (backlots of Inwood) was included in case additional information was necessary, however there are no plans to survey those lots at this time,” Monnat said via email. “The survey work is starting at specific locations in order to determine the viability of the route and will proceed in steps as information is gathered. Preliminary survey has begun along the backlots of North Rosemary (south side of Pin Oak Creek) on specific properties where right-of entries have been granted to allow access. With this information, we can determine the specific survey route and access points. The survey will provide us the elevation of the ground, elevation of any creek crossing along the property, density of vegetation, obstacles, etc. This information, particularly at critical points, will tell us if the proposed trunk line would cross below the bottom of the creek or if aerial crossings would be required.”
Monnat also said there is not a specific date for the completion of the survey work, as they are “proceeding step by step and will be reviewing the data as it is gathered and proceed accordingly.” She also confirmed that the project does include an environmental study of the final selected route.
Bryan City Councilman James Edge of Single Member District 4, where the Beverly Estates neighborhood resides, also attended the Monday meeting and said overall it went well, but that it “did get contentious at times.”
“And that is to be expected because people are passionate,” he said. “In a lot of cases this is their nest egg, their retirement. This is their investment that they have or ever will make and they are very concerned about the impact, and I share those concerns.”
Edge said the impact of the the back lot option is unknown until surveyors and engineers are able to determine exactly where they would need to put the boring holes or where they would have to trench and how it would affect the creeks.
“We won’t know any of that until the surveying is complete,” he said Wednesday. “But it became obvious that they are going to have to remove a significant amount of trees in order to get their equipment in to engage in those boring holes.”
Edge said College Station city staff have previously expressed their different reasoning for not wanting to input a lift station, related to reliability and financial costs.
“At the meeting one of the [College Station staff members] said outright, ‘The cost of the lift station was the determining factor,’ and she said very specifically that, ‘The city did not want to pass along the cost of upgrading their lift station to their rate payers,’” he recalled. “And at that point the [Bryan] neighbors became fairly vocal in the fact that, ‘Why should you pass along a burden to us, with the burden of going through our neighborhood, simply because you want to save your rate payers?’ And I absolutely understand their point of view.”
Former Bryan Mayor Andrew Nelson, who owns two properties on North Rosemary, said there are more trees in the back on Pin Oak Creek than there are in the front road on North Rosemary.
“There are a lot of residents that want to make clear that, like the people on Vine Street and Inwood, we are as concerned about this sewer trunk line being put on the back or front property line,” he said. “It is still going through a lot of old growth, trees and the wooded areas is the reason why we made a big investment in living there.”
Regardless of which route is taken, the front or the back, Nelson said it will damage the neighborhood integrity that has existed as long as College Station has been a city.
“I only say that because it is not just an established neighborhood, it is very historic,” he said. “And if it goes in the front or the back, there is a very easy fix; to me this is a self-inflicted wound.”
A lot of residents on North Rosemary care more about the trunk line not going through the back than through the front of properties, Nelson said.
“The only solution that really protects the neighborhood integrity is to just build the lift station,” he said. “There are a lot of us who don’t want either; but if I had my choice, I would rather it go down the front under the road, instead of going 10 feet from my bedroom.”
Beverly Estates/Rosemary Homeowners Association president Scott Hickle, who lives on Park Lane, said it is their hope that both cities can work things out, “so that the historic neighborhood is not impacted severely or even destroyed, with this pending sewer trunk line rehabilitation project that only seems to benefit the city of College Station with no benefit to the citizens of Bryan.”
“We want to make sure they understand how important it is to take all of the considerations into account when making a decision,” he said. “From an outsider looking in, they would say we are victims, and we don’t want to be the victims; we want to be the way we always have been, just regular people.”
For more information about the project, contact Monnat at 764-5028 or email smonnat@cstx.gov.
