Question
We have an acre and one half of property with a single family home on it.Over the las twenty years, a water problem with water coming from higher up through our back yard and down our driveway which is gravel washing it out when we have heavy rains.Many new homes have been built higher up on the mountains behind us. After contacting the township engineer, he suggested building a berm in the backyard. I was wondering if this would really solve our problem or would the water just go elsewhere. There is a road running in the back of us and I think the sewers there aren't big enough to contain the water, but the township does not want to spend the funds to fix the problem and wants us to deal with it. They have also told us that the catch basins higher up on the mountain aren't large enough to contain the water. Our 2 neighbors also get water, but not as much as we do. The town engineer suggested that we macadam the driveway to avoid getting the washout in our driveway. Can you comment on the problem? Should I hire my own engineer and sue the township? Would I get anywhere if I did so?  

Answer
Seems like there's at least a couple of parts to this problem.  One part I can give some advice, on the other I can only speculate...

First, is the immediate problem of limiting damage to your property.  The idea of a berm is workable, but I think it would have to be coupled with a catch basin & drainage pipe.  Shape the berm to shunt the water a short distance to the catch basin, which will then divert it into the drainage pipe headed to the low end of your property and toward (?) a township storm sewer (?) a drywell (?) drainage bed.  This keeps the flow from under control and mostly underground, so the damage will be limited.  This may in fact require an engineer who can properly assess the flow capacity of whatever diversion system you create.


While this may work, you're right to try to get to the cause of this drainage and erosion problem, not just treat its effect on your place.  Here in Portland, the property owner is responsible for what leaves the property, in this case the water.  So one avenue you could pursue (here I'm just speculating) is to address the problem with the property owner(s) accross the road (upstream) of your place.  They are allowing runoff from their property to damage yours.  Let them take it up with their insurance company and the township.

Maybe the combined motivation of the damage to your property & the liability to them caused by their uncontrolled runoff will allow you join forces to get the municipality to step up and fix this, since they have already admitted inadequacies in their system. Also, if it's happening to you, it's probably happening to others, in the rush to develop.

For what it's worth,
Mark in Portland Oregon