FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 26, 2014
FLORIDA INVESTS NEARLY $30,000 FOR
FLOOD PROTECTION IN VOLUSIA COUNTY
~City and DEP partner to provide stormwater relief for community~
TALLAHASSEE
- In a continued effort to relieve the Lakeview Estates Mobile Home Park of an
elevated risk of flooding, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection
is providing the city of South Daytona in Volusia County a nearly $25,000 grant.
The city of South Daytona is also contributing $4,160.
“It is great to see
this community getting the relief it needs,” said DEP Secretary Herschel T.
Vinyard Jr. “This project will help ensure the health and safety of the
residents, while benefiting Florida’s environment.”
“We are grateful for
the department’s support in funding a critical need to automatically regulate
the water levels in Lakeview Estates,” said Les Gillis, South Daytona’s public
works director. “This is a mitigation project that will benefit Lakeview
residents as well as the entire community.”
“I am pleased to hear
that the South Daytona Lakeview Estates Mobile Home Park stormwater project is moving
forward,” said Senator Dorothy Hukill. “We all remember the 2009 community and
area flooding that occurred after heavy rain. This is a good project that will
ensure our residents, their homes and surrounding areas are protected.”
The city of South
Daytona, in conjunction with the Lakeview engineer, developed a flood-reduction
plan that called for the installation of two large stormwater pumps to
regulate the water levels within the stormwater retention areas. In 2011, after
design and permitting were complete, the city installed the two stormwater
pumps inside the park to alleviate any future flooding.
At the time these pumps
were installed, the three-phase power necessary to operate the pumps continuously
was not available. The city manually operated these pumps, when needed, using a
portable generator. The stormwater pumps
need a continuous power source to regulate the water level within the
stormwater retention area as they were designed.
The funding provided by
the department, with a local contribution, will fund the extension of electrical
power to the already installed stormwater pumps. The extension of a three-phase
power service will allow these stormwater pumps to automatically turn on when
the float switches indicate the water levels in the stormwater retention areas
are rising. Once on, the pumps will begin to lower the water levels back to
normal at which point they will automatically shut off.
When this project is
completed, the pumps will regulate the water levels as designed to alleviate
flooding conditions in the future. The project is expected to be completed in
February of 2015.
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