RECENT major construction projects at the University of Mississippi Medical Center have had little, if any, impact on flooding in Belhaven.
And a new project, a $180 million expansion of the Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital, actually could reduce it.
Many Northsiders have credited the flooding to development upstream, including at UMMC.
However, the majority of recent projects, including a new School of Medicine and new research building, were constructed on already developed areas. The new pediatric building for the children’s hospital is also being built on a previously developed site, which means all three developments do not increase storm water coming off of the site.
Additionally, the new children’s wing will include the creation of more green space, which is designed not only to improve hospital aesthetics, but to slow storm water flowing into the city’s drainage system.
While those projects are expected to have minimal impact, hospital officials are putting plans in place to ensure “zero impact or above on storm water” in the future.
According to the hospital’s construction office, “future projects will be assessed in the early design phase and appropriate measures will be incorporated to mitigate any storm water runoff.”
In December, hospital and state leaders broke ground on a new pediatrics wing for the Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital.
The seven-story, 340,000-square-foot hospital is located on Woodrow Wilson Avenue and the construction manager is Brasfield and Gorrie.
The expansion is being built on an existing asphalt parking lot that took up 5.64 acres. Once construction is completed, the impervious area will be reduced to 5.39 acres, and the remaining land will be turned into green space, according to construction office notes.
“This is a reduction in the hard surface runoff area and an increase in grass and landscape areas as a result of the expansion project. This change results in an increase in land available to absorb rainwater and therefore reduces the rate of storm ... drainage,” the office stated.
UMMC is located in the Belhaven Creek drainage basin. The basin runs from north of Lakeland Drive to south of Pinehurst Street, and from Veteran’s Memorial Stadium in the west to LeFleur’s Bluff State Park in the east, according to a map provided by the National Weather Service (NWS).
The basin is also home to Veterans Memorial Stadium and its parking lots, the G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery VA Hospital, St. Dominic’s Hospital, Belhaven University and other development.
NWS statistics show more than 99 percent of the area is developed, with 41.58 percent of surfaces being impervious.
Impervious areas include parking lots, buildings and roofs. These structures do not soak up rainwater like natural ground. That runoff goes into nearby creeks, tributaries and low-lying areas. In the case of Belhaven Creek, runoff from these developed areas causes the creek to jump its banks and leads to flash flooding.
In July, a storm dumping 2.5 inches of rain in a little less than an hour caused the creek to rise from 3.16 feet to more than 13 feet at Riverside Drive and from 2.8 feet to 10.37 feet at Laurel Street.
Several neighborhood streets, yards and cars just south of Riverside were flooded as a result.
UMMC officials say they understand the impact new construction has downstream, and any project being built on the campus must receive approval from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ).
“Every time we do a construction project, a study has to be done, including one on storm water runoff mitigation,” UMMC spokesman Marc Rolph said. “Water mitigation plans are construction project-specific.”
Rolph pointed to the completion of a new parking garage as an example. The 900-space structure was completed about a year ago and is located on the east side of the campus near the School of Dentistry.
Because the garage was built partially on permeable land, or green space, the hospital had to construct a retention area across the street to handle storm runoff.
“To call it a pond would be inaccurate, because it doesn’t continuously hold water … It is an area where overflow water can go and was meant to slow water down as it progresses through the (drainage) system.”
No water mitigation plans were needed for the new School of Medicine building or research center, which both were completed earlier this year. Both were constructed on pre-existing parking lots, he said.
Following the July floods, UMMC came under fire for not building several retention ponds included in its 2010 master plan.
However, notes on the 2017 plan said that the retention structures were not needed, and are not included in the updated plan released last year.
“The 2010 master plan indicated several possible locations for water retention structures that would be incorporated in the event projects … However, most of the projects that were depicted ... have not been built.”
Two ponds at the hospital’s Woodrow Wilson entrance, for example, were not only designed to prevent flooding, but also to improve aesthetics.
“(They) were intended to be illustrative in nature – indicating where retention areas might be added that could enhance the appearance of the campus,” according to construction office notes. “The retention areas and their location as depicted were not accompanied by any detailed scientific analysis.”
