The site work we completed at the Harmony at Anderson entailed installation of a large flood bypass pond which has helped to minimize flooding in Anderson Township’s Clough Creek. Read the article written in Anderson Insight’s March 2021 newsletter issue below:
Clough Basin Ready to Tackle Spring Floods
A new bypass pond on Clough Creek could hold more than 2 million gallons of stormwater and lessen flooding and erosion downstream.
If you travel Clough Pike near the new Harmony Senior Living development, you’ll see a large flood bypass pond built along Clough Creek. This recently-built basin is poised to play a valuable role in helping alleviate flooding along that area.
Starting in 2019, Anderson Township and the developers of Harmony at Anderson worked to install this large flood bypass pond that could hold more than 2 million gallons of stormwater. As much of the Clough Creek watershed was developed prior to stormwater regulations in the 1990s, streambank erosion has impacted the creek and downstream property over the years.
The property on which the basin is located was acquired by the township in the late 1980s and farmed until the early 2000s. Dirt removed from the site was used to raise the elevation for the adjacent Harmony development and eliminated their need to haul fill material to the site.
That basin is now complete, and Assistant Administrator for Operations Steve Sievers says the structure is a win-win for both residents and the senior living facility. “The basin, which will help to slow the speed and high water levels of the creek during storm events, was built with no public funds,” he said “The natural process of revegetation has already started and we’re excited to see the new vegetation and wildlife that will be attracted to this property.”
The new basin has an overflow on the creek bank that will allow high waters from the creek to overflow into the pond. This pond holds water through a series of smaller basins, and slowly releases it downstream through small holes in the outlet weir wall. The end result is less water in the creek during a large storm event, which also reduces flooding effects further downstream, Sievers said.
“This creative project seeks to address stormwater issues, enhances the environmental attributes of this site, all the while being undertaken with no public cost,” noted Trustee Dee Stone. “In fact, the soil removed from this site is a key township economic development piece of the Harmony development, which will result in other improvements along Clough Pike and Clough Creek,” she added.
“This project is a perfect example of a public-private partnership that will benefit our community in a myriad of ways,” Sievers said.