Wet basements and flooding.

Neighbors on Upton who abut the vacant land on Vincent have traditionally had problems with wet basements. Many have installed sump pumps, running them constantly in wet weather, to prevent flooding and puddling. Standing water collects in the ravine between the homes on Upton and the property under consideration for development. The City built an earthen dam in the woods to help the flooding, but it is eroding. One neighbor reports that each spring, continuously for several weeks, her basement had to be drained onto the street by the Public Works. She was also told that the main drain at Thomas Avenue was already at capacity. The land on the Vincent Avenue site has a number of SERIOUS environmental challenges. It was a former pond and valley landfilled by the city in the late 40s-early 50s and now contains concrete and asphalt and who knows what else to a depth of more than twenty feet stretching at least a city block (maybe more).

To view a PDF documenting water problems encountered over the years by area residents click here.

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the PDF (Portable Document Format). If you do not have this software, it is available for a FREE download at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Hydrology of the land.

Anwatin Woods sits astride a valley starting in Wirth Park and draining eastward to Bassett's Creek. (See Map) The land was home to numerous ponds and springs prior to being landfilled in the 1940s and 50s. (See 1939 Aerial Photo) It is this water table and abundance of springs that attracted the Glenwood Inglewood Water Company to the area (their plant is only a few blocks from Anwatin Woods). Looking at the 1939 aerial photograph, you can clearly see how the groundwater flows from Birch Pond on the west through Anwatin Woods, and on to Bassett's Creek. One of the FBPW's prime goals is to address the problems that groundwater creates as it flows through the landfill, causing wet basements for area residents and possibly carrying toxic leachings into Bassett's Creek. It is also this groundwater that makes this land such a poor candidate for residential development.

After purchasing the land, the FBPW / Save anwatin Woods will seek funding to clean up this landfill, restore the natural state of the land, and possibly bring back the old water features.
See (Our Vision of the Future).

The FBPW theorize that the porous nature of the fill contributes to a rapid runoff, exacerbating the water problems.