Development of a Comprehensive Stormwater Drainage Plan

By James Bruce Stanley

This position paper addresses the necessity of developing and adopting a comprehensive stormwater drainage plan for the Metropolitan Nashville Davidson County area.

The failure of metropolitan authorities over the years to acknowledge this problem had allowed its expansion. This lack of acknowledgment was no longer acceptable. In 1996, I cosponsored a bill which allocated capital to address infrastructure in general. Throughout my first term on the council, I have spent approximately $350,000 of the $400,000 allocated for District 14 infrastructure on stormwater drainage projects. However, it was in 1998 that several councilmembers along with me authored legislation that would establish a Stormwater Management Task Force of councilmembers, as well as citizens from all walks of life, to study the need to adopt a comprehensive stormwater drainage plan for Metropolitan Nashville.

During the past seven (7) months, this task force, of which I was made a member, has studied intensely the stormwater drainage problems encompassing our city. In addition, we have employed a corporate consulting firm to assist us in developing an acceptable plan for Metropolitan Nashville. One of the most surprising statistics brought before our group was the fact that numerous municipalities throughout the south of similar, or smaller, size than Nashville had already in place comprehensive stormwater drainage plans to address their flooding problems. Both Louisville, Kentucky and Charlotte, North Carolina have programs in place that invest $10-20 million annually to address these flooding problems. Even Chattanooga, which is 1/5 the size of Metropolitan Nashville, spends approximately $2 million dollars annually to regulate this stormwater drainage. The time has come for Metropolitan Nashville, with its rapid development pace and increasing developmental density, to mirror these fellow cities and provide relief for the citizens of our community suffering from stormwater overflows.

I have felt very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to be a member of this task force and address the flooding issues associated with stormwater drainage. This task force will develop and recommend a comprehensive stormwater drainage plan for our city. The leaders of our city should address this issue by finally adopting this plan and providing relief to the citizens of our city from this flooding.