flooding along Addison Creek

Rivers and creeks flood. Floods are powerful, destructive forces.

Global warming will change climate patterns. One general trend is that more heat means more evaporation, overwhelmingly from oceans. More evaporation means more rain.

Proviso Herald (Cathryn Gran) writes about the governments attempt to reduce the size of the flood plain along Addison Creek.

The Addison Creek Restoration Commission is working to reduce or eliminate overbank flooding, thus decreasing the need for flood insurance, said Bellwood Village President Frank Pasquale.

In addition to Bellwood, the commission consists of representatives from Broadview, Melrose Park, North Riverside, Northlake, Stone Park and Westchester.

The emphasis seems to be on using mechanical methods to contain the water from overflowing the banks.

But the standard being used--a hundred year flood--is problematic. Rainfall patterns are likely to change. And if more (or less) of the Addison Creek drainage covered with impermeable surfaces, e.g. roofs, roads, parking lots, etc., then the water gets to the creek even faster (or slower).

In the past the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been quick to build structures, particularly dams, to try to control rivers and flooding. Often these projects have trashed the environment. Sometimes they have had unintended consequences that have been undesirable.

Rather than spending a ton of money building "a 400-plus-acre reservoir with channels to control flood water" why not buy out homeowners over time and build some open space along the creek that's designed to flood?

I suspect the village is getting advice from people who know how to build structures to contain water, but know much less about creating a more natural flood plain that's designed to be deluged periodically.

I also suspect, it's more lucrative for the usual pigs at the trough to build lots of concrete barriers than to create parks along Addison Creek.