JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (WDRB) – Jeffersonville and Clarksville are committing millions of dollars to upgrade the Cane Run pump station in order to help prevent significant flooding in the future.
Parts of the city of Jeffersonville and the town of Clarksville are nestled in what’s considered a bowl, like the intersection of Tenth and Spring Streets.
“Where we are now, a half mile from the Ohio River, we’re lower than the elevation of the banks of where the river would come up,” Jeffersonville Mayor Mike Moore said, sitting on a bench in the area.
So when it rains, instead of the water running down to the river, it pools in areas like Tenth Street and over by the Radisson Hotel or Derby Dinner Playhouse in Clarksville. There is a 96-inch water main that funnels water from Jeffersonville and Clarksville to the Cane Run Pump Station off Lyons Avenue in Clarksville. The pump station was built in the 1940s, and in 1963, it was determined a new one would need to be built to handle the water overflow.
Since then, several plans between the two communities have failed. So when it rains now, a couple feet of water will flood parking lots before the old pump station will kick in.
“The pump station itself is just so outdated that it can’t keep up once that water starts going in there,” Clarksville Town Council member David Worrall said.
It has taken decades to reach an agreement, but this week, all the funding agreements were signed, securing the money needed to upgrade the pump station. The Jefferson City Council, Jeffersonville City Sewer Board, Clarksville Town Council and Redevelopment Commission and Jeffersonville-Clarksville Flood Control District have committed $6.2 million to the project.
By building a bigger pump station, the increased capacity will help pump the flood water back out to the river quicker.
“You can’t control the water, that’s the thing," Worrall said. "You can’t control how much water comes down,. But we can control how to funnel it out of these low areas faster. This will be a great improvement.”
Both Worrall and Moore said this has been a significant team effort with all four groups to secure the funding and agree on a project that will benefit residents of both communities.
“A whole lot of people who are struggling with wet basements and other problems in the city of Jeff and the town of Clarksville – this is going to be a big relief for them,” Moore said.
Moore said this project will be completed without any rate increases. While the money has been secured and engineering plans have been in the works for the last six months, it is uncertain when work might start. Worrall believes there could be movement by the end of the year.
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