Published: June 11, 2009 10:21 pm         

Study: Connect ditch directly to Wabash

Terre Haute commissioned review after flood of 2008

TERRE HAUTE — A Plainfield engineering firm recommends the City of Terre Haute construct a direct outlet to the Wabash River for Thompson Ditch, removing some water flow into Honey Creek during heavy rainfall.

A March study from Banning Engineering also recommends limiting the amount of new water discharged into Thompson Ditch. The city commissioned the study earlier this year following the June 2008 flood.

City Engineer Chuck Ennis said the recommendation would not impact construction of new dikes and levees by the Honey Creek-Vigo Conservancy District along the ditch. The district earlier this month learned it will receive $3.3 million in federal funds to build dikes and floodwalls from Seventh Street to U.S. 41 and then from U.S. 41 to where the ditch enters Honey Creek.

The project will protect property in the event Honey Creek backs up into Thompson Ditch.

Ennis said he would like to see a cooperative effort between the city and the conservancy district for a diversion of the ditch. The Banning study suggested two alternatives for a ditch outlet; the first is about 2 miles long, stretching from near Honey Creek and west to the Wabash River.

A second, more likely route, goes north of the ditch for less than a mile, emptying into the Wabash River north near the city’s wastewater treatment facility. The city would bore under Indiana 63, which is actually a city street in that area, and install a large drainage pipe.

While consultants for the city are still compiling cost estimates, Ennis said costs could range from $2 million to $3 million, plus land acquisition. Much of that would be funded from the city’s sanitary sewer district fund, Ennis said.

City officials are to meet next with conservancy officials to review the Banning study.

Mayor Duke Bennett said the city and conservancy district “both hired individual consultants, and there may be some things that overlap on the south end of town. We would like to hear results of their engineering study and share our results with them, then kind of tell them the way we are leaning and see how that might impact what they are doing and what we will be doing, so we can make sure we get the biggest bang for the buck.”

Richard Jenkins, president of the Honey Creek-Vigo Conservancy District, said Thursday that the ditch diversion may be a good project, but not one likely to be funded by the conservancy district.

“I don’t think that is our cost. Our purpose, established 20 years ago, is to build the dikes and levees around Honey Creek and Thompson Ditch,” Jenkins said. “The time frame it would take to get a ditch bonded and paid for in today’s tax situation, I don’t know if it would happen in the near future,” he said.

“We can’t bond anything, as we are bonded to the max,” he added.

Ennis said the ditch diversion would help reduce the amount of water going into Honey Creek.

Ennis said after a storm, for a period of time, 40 percent of the water flow in Honey Creek comes from Thompson Ditch, where it meets the creek. “Because the water in Thompson Ditch comes from streets and pipes into the ditch, the water in the ditch gets to the creek faster and sooner than water that falls in a cornfield or open ground,” he said.

“The proposed extension would make Thompson Ditch more of a standalone drainage structure and Honey Creek its own, so we are not contributing to the problem downstream. This would let the ditch handle the drainage from the southeast part of Terre Haute and they would be independent of each other,” Ennis said.

“It would not really do anything to increase the capacity of Thompson Ditch,” he said.

Jenkins said he would like to see any study the city has on water flow. Jenkins said after storms, “water in Honey Creek is flowing higher and faster than in Thompson Ditch.”

Thompson Ditch starts on the west side of Fruitridge Avenue, southwest of the southern entrance to Deming Park. The ditch runs parallel to a railroad line for 3.5 miles heading southwest to Erie Canal Road, then weaves through Honey Creek Township for about 3 miles to connect to Honey Creek. The ditch is about 6.5 miles long, with just more than 2.5 miles within the city’s corporate limits, according to the Banning study.

The ditch was reconstructed in 1978 to increase capacity and efficiency, the study states.

Bernard Ridens, executive director of the Taxpayers Association of Vigo County, said he would like to see a more combined effort for flood control from all government and conservancy agencies. Ridens said improvements to Thompson Ditch and Honey Creek simply push water farther south.

“I think we need to bring in officials with the federal penitentiary, as this affects them and homeowners south of them,” Ridens said. “I think the drainage route suggested by the city’s study makes sense and is a good idea, but I think there needs to be more study of the area after the [Indiana] 63 bridge,” south of the federal penitentiary.



Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com