A water detention system just north of Turtle Creek Mall is giving Lamar County officials and residents headaches – to the tune of more than a dozen flooded homes that have had to be demolished and those residents rehoused – but Hattiesburg and mall officials say they are working quickly to correct the situation.
The inline detention facility, which is on private property owned by mall developers but within Hattiesburg city limits, is a 20-foot wide concrete system that carries excess rainwater all the way from Gravel Pit Road and into neighborhoods on Perry Lee Drive, Sam Rayburn Drive and other roads in the area. Lamar County District 5 Supervisor Dale Lucus said because of flooding from the system since 2005 the county has had to purchase and demolish 19 water-damaged homes – including four at last week’s board meeting – and re-home those residents with the help of buyouts with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
During a Tuesday visit to the site, Lucus, whose district includes several of the flooded houses, said the main problem is the overgrowth around the system, including trees, bushes, and cogongrass.
“There’s been no maintenance whatsoever – everything has grown up, so the water is free-flowing through,” Lucus said. “So when we get a rain, the water just gets up.
“All of these trees and stuff, this is in violation of a retention pond.”
Stacy Woodard, general manager of Turtle Creek Mall, said she is working with the city to alleviate the problem, although she hasn’t heard from any county officials.
“We’re working to bring it up to code,” she said. “There is some vegetation and trees that need to be removed, and brought back to the site grading.
“So that has been turned over to officials with my company, and they’re working with the city. So we’ll follow protocol and get it done just as timely as we can.”
Because the retention is within the Hattiesburg city limits, it does fall under the city’s code enforcement procedure.
“Once we learned that there was a potential issue, we did investigate, just as we would with any code allegation,” said Ann Jones, chief administrative officer for the city. “It does appear that there is silt and vegetation in that detention basin, so we have reached out to mall officials about that issue.
“It’s our understanding that they plan to take steps to correct whatever the issue may be, and when we brought it to their attention they were very cooperative. We’ll follow this just like we’d follow any code enforcement issue that arises in the city, so we’ll follow our normal procedures.”
Another issue is the erosion of the concrete ditches coming from the mall parking lot, which carry water down to the inline detention facility.
“You can see what the water’s done here,” Lucus said. “It has eroded all the concrete ditches out, so there’s no concrete ditches running down through here; it’s all been blown completely out.
“And up there (above the ditches), they’ve dumping debris, so it’s all going to come down in front of that culvert. I don’t know who’s dumping the debris, but all of this (field) should be open.”
Lucus said ultimately, the responsibility falls on the city, as that entity has the authority to ensure the mall completes the work.
“I’ve had the health department here, I’ve had the (Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality) here,” he said. “They’ve all been on site, just as we are today, and they all say that as far as getting anything done, it falls back on the city of Hattiesburg.
“This floodwater’s going right into residential areas, and there’s no detention here to stop it. All we’re trying to do is stop the flooding of these homeowners downstream – that’s what we’ve been asking for years.”
