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Rains that drenched the Louisville area created ponds and soaked shoes at the University of Louisville’s Belknap Campus last week.
As Louisville was hit with what the Metropolitan Sewer District gauged at nearly two inches of rain on Tuesday, the campus drainage system seemed once again overwhelmed by water: drains backed up and rain pooled on sidewalks.
“It makes the university look bad when there are giant puddles of water which turn into giant mud pits,” said Chris Backlund, a freshman engineering major. “It’s also dangerous to walk around with sheets of ice on the ground.”
“I fell on the ice on the way to class the other day,” said freshman Crystal Embs, who worried that someone might be injured as a result of the problem and sue the school.
But Tuesday’s weather was mild compared to the storms that flooded parts of the city early last semester. The Cardinal reported water levels rising several feet outside Houchens Building in Sept. 2006
Last semester’s flooding, along with several other watery messes, are part of an ongoing dilemma at the University of Louisville.
Physical plant employees said the problem is due in part to Louisville’s location in the Ohio Valley, an area that from time to time receives heavy amounts of rain in short amounts of time.
Workers also explained blasting as part of construction on campus in recent years has affected underground water tables.
With more basements being dug for new buildings, water is displaced and has nowhere to soak into when it rains. Workers said they try to reroute water by adding drains and catch basins in problem areas.
“I know that [Louisville] is a low-lying city, but I find it hard to believe that nothing can be done,” said Backlund.
The issue doesn’t stop outside; it has also trickled into classrooms at U of L. Student “think-tanks” in Dr. Julie Berman’s communication class last semester aimed to propose solutions to different unresolved problems at U of L, such as parking, campus food choices and drainage.
“It began as an obscure topic, but students [in the class] realized that they hated walking through a muddy campus,” Berman said.
One student proposal called for the re-construction of campus sidewalks similar to structure of ancient Roman roads. Berman said that roads in ancient Roman were built peaking in the middle, allowing for water to run off the sides and into the grass.
Nick Browning, a senior communications major, said the drainage problems could also present a negative image of the campus to visitors. “This can effect the decisions of prospective students when they visit and have to walk through a swamp,” he said. Browning was part of the “think-tank” that addressed campus drainage.
“When the university has money for athletic facility expansion, they should be able to fix our sidewalks,” said Browning.
The problem, though, is not that simple. Funding has to come from somewhere – state or local resources, or other parts of the university budget, for example – before campus officials can take action on the problem.
In 2004, the U of L Student Government Association attempted to remedy the overflow problems, working with Finance and Administration Vice President Larry Owsley.
In a September 2004 interview with The Cardinal, Owsley said that he had “pinpointed 42 problem areas, with the SAC being one of the highest-priority” as areas on campus experiencing flooding.
And since that time, drainage basins have been installed at the base of the ramp of the Student Activities Center. Water still pooled in other areas when the rains hit last week, though.
Owsley did not return a request for comment last week.
