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City of Midland could soon make changes to drainage plan

Midland is in the works of fixing flooding problems by updating their drainage plan. The City Council voted in favor of adopting a study that would help prevent flooding in southeast Midland.

MIDLAND, TX (KWES) - Midland is in the works of fixing flooding problems by updating their drainage plan. The City Council voted in favor of adopting a study to add on to the existing drainage plan that would help prevent flooding in southeast Midland on Tuesday.

"Something a lot of people don't know is our roads were designed to carry water downstream. We don't have an underwater drainage system in a lot of parts of town," said Sara Bustilloz with the City of Midland.

With the city's development along with heavy rainfall, it has left some of that water on the streets. That's why the city of Midland is making an update to their drainage plan.

"Everything goes from the northwest down to the southeast, so we have to make sure we have the appropriate drainage system in place so that we don't flood out our neighbors down in the southeast," said District 4 Councilman J. Ross Lacy.

The city currently has what's called their Master Drainage Plan from 1996, and with new businesses and more growth, the new study would decrease floodplain areas on both the Midland and Jal Draw, even adding a retention basin where it's needed.

"We need a retention basin up in the north corridor and we got an area that's identified," said Lacy. "We also need to do metering, you can restrict the flow of water coming out of a drainage retention basin that's going downstream so it lessens the impact."

The plan will be shown to developers where they can conform to it but work wouldn't happen any time soon. The price tag for these redevelopments can cost around $130 million.

"It's tough to get funding for storm water drainage in Midland especially when you have three to four events a year, but it's critical, no one wants to have their house flooded out," said Lacy. "It's our responsibility we have a plan of action in place once revenue becomes available."

There's no set date when the City Council will take action to implement the study yet, they may have to look at drainage fees and how they will fund the project.

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