New Haven Independent

City engineers are trudging into the muck of the Morris Creek this week to install new technology they say will alleviate a flooding problem that’s been going on for years around Dean Street in the Morris Cove area of town. The problem for residents like Scott Murphy (pictured above) is that the street is lower than the high tide mark of the creek. So when the water rises, it pushes into storm drains and out into the street.

“You get water rushing out of the storm drains all down the street — you can’t control it,” said Morris Cove Alderwoman Arlene DePino at a city press conference Thursday. DePino happens to live on Dean Street, which she said has gotten so flooded that the water was “up to your knees.”

Every time the area floods, Fire Chief Michael Grant sends out a crew to pump out the mess. The problem has been going on as long as anyone remembers, but the last couple years have been the worst. “I’ve never seen it this bad in my 35 years in the department,” he testified.

Relief, said safety officials, lies in the form of a duck bill. The so-called “duck bill valve” (pictured, demonstrated by Seb Asadourian, a city engineer) gets attached to the opening of the storm drains where they pour into the creek. The one-way valves let water into the creek, but seal the opening so creek-water can’t push its way back up.

By the end of the week, the city will have installed nine such valves in the area, announced Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts. The whole project should cost $30,000. The valves block only 95 percent of the water, according to city officials.

To solve the rest of the problem, the city plans to build pumping stations that would automatically pump water off of the Dean Street area. The city is currently reviewing bids for that project, which would cost several million dollars, according to assistant city engineer Larry Smith.

How was the news received at the Murphy home?

“I hope it works,” said Murphy, who was just getting home from picking up his daughters at a party at school. “When the water comes all the way up to the house, they get scared.”

He said the problem’s been going on for the entire eight years he’s lived there. His across-the-street neighbor gets flooding so bad it comes up to the handles on her garage door, he said. “For all the taxes we pay over here, we shouldn’t have to live like that.”