Just singing – and cursing – in the rain

Puddles in downtown St. Augustine look harmless enough, especially to residents used to the ankle-deep water that suddenly appears after heavy storms.
But puddles in the Toques Place parking lot could turn into a pond, city officials fear. And that could pose trouble for St. Augustine, a town whose water problems never seem to evaporate.
The Toques Place lot is potential hazard because just below the asphalt are two 300-foot-deep artesian wells that could easily spout leaks and flood the street if under pressure from the aquifer down below, officials say.
In February, St. Augustine officials decided to hire the St. Johns River Water Management District, a Florida regulatory agency, to seal the wells.
“They have a program to assist property owners to plug these old artesian wells because they blow under pressure from the aquifer,” Public Works Director Martha Graham said in a Feb. 16 memo to City Manager Bill Harriss.

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Florida Statute 373.207 requires water districts to identify abandoned artesian wells and take steps to plug them.
Sealing the two Toques Place wells is expected to cost $10,000 to $15,000. The Feb. 23 issue of the St. Augustine Report quoted Graham as saying that the fittings on the well cappings are corroded “and if they break open,” that “could flood the parking lot and cause a sinkhole.”
St. Augustine plans to pay $10,000 toward capping the wells. The water management district will cover any costs beyond that.
What to do about excess water is a perpetual problem in St. Augustine.
“We’re kind of like New Orleans in that our elevation is so low and that we have tidal influence,” Graham said. “Flooding from rain events or high tides is caused by water run off. As you develop properties, take away the green space and pave it over, the water just runs off.”
Such problems are to be expected, City Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline agreed.
“We are subject to tides and occasional floods,” she said. “The city is a low coastal town, located between two rivers and in close proximity to the Atlantic.”
But the water creates headaches for people who work downtown.
“I park on Cordova for work, and there have been several times where I’ve taken my heels off and rolled up my pants so that they wouldn’t get wet,” said Erin Johnson, an events manager for the Casa Monica Hotel.
Her colleague, Allison Wilson, said she was so worried about the rain last year she took a taxi to work.
“I didn’t want it to flood my car,” she said.

City officials have been studying and fretting about drainage problems for years.
Graham said the city isn’t ready for the kind of huge rainstorm that happens once every 25 years. “We can hardly handle” the big storms that come along once every year or two, she said.
The size, frequency and length of rainstorms are among the factors engineers consider when building drainage systems.
“We do have pipe drainage systems, but they’re small,” Graham said. “By current standards we need it to be double or triple the size that it is now. But because we are so historically sensitive, small and at a lower elevation, and because of a financial burden, we’re sort of stuck with what we have unless we are ready to pay millions of dollars.”
The city finances drainage costs with a storm water fee that is attached to utility bills.
“We get about $700,000 a year revenue from that,” Graham said.
The city would need more than that to solve all its drainage problems, but officials say they are doing what they can.
For instance, workers are adding drainage to Riberia Street, a $4.6 million project.
Officials would also like to reinforce the Historic Seawall to protect the bay front south of the Bridge of Lions. Estimated cost: $4.7 million.
The city is seeking a federal grant to help pay for that, Sikes-Kline said.

Still, no one expects the city’s water troubles to go away anytime soon.
In fact, some say, flooding is normal for a town that is just five feet above sea level in some spots.
“If you live in downtown St. Augustine or for that matter, anywhere along the coast of Florida, areas are going to be prone to flooding,” City Commissioner Don Crichlow said. “Just like living on the beach, you are going to have erosion. You just have to plan on it.”
But in a city so concerned with historic preservation, it’s not always easy to meet public safety standards.
“It’s a challenge,” Graham said. “Flooding is a safety issue. You have historical features that conflict with current safety standards.
“There’s always that balance and risk.”
Story and photos by Whitney Blair, J.D. Bray and Rachel Bruce