UPDATE April 28, 2017 / City and Park District Addressing Knoch Knolls Nature Center Flooding
Cooperative partnership, proactive solutions will alleviate chances of future incidents.
The Naperville Park District and the City of Naperville have been working cooperatively to address the sanitary sewer back-up that occurred on March 30 and flooded the Knoch Knolls Nature Center.
In the course of an assessment by City personnel that involved inspection of the sanitary sewer system upstream and downstream from the Nature Center, the City discovered a previously unknown broken manhole cover. A broken lid would allow additional storm water infiltration into the sanitary sewer system, which results in more water volume. This additional water into the system, due to the heavy rains received that week, caused a back-up at the facility.
The manhole cover has since been repaired and, as a further measure of prudence and redundancy, an underground pump station will provide additional safeguards to prevent a similar event from occurring in the future. The City has agreed to fund the cost for the pump station.
“Our best practice, whether you’re a homeowner or a business, is to have a redundancy built in to help prevent these types of situations from occurring,” Naperville’s Water Utility Director Jim Holzapfel said. “The addition of a pump station and the allocation of City dollars towards it is in line with previous programs we’ve offered to our customers. We are pleased to help our partners at the Park District so that this unfortunate situation does not occur again.”
As an initial step, on April 5, City staff installed a temporary valve to immediately address any additional backflow issues at the Nature Center.
The Park District is currently working with restoration and construction contractors to clean and renovate the facility. It is expected that this work will take up to eight weeks to complete. The repairs and cleaning will be covered through an insurance claim made by the Park District.
Submitted by Sue Omanson for the Naperville Park District and the City of Naperville.
Orignal Post March 31, 2017 / Knoch Knolls Nature Center, located at 320 Knoch Knolls Road, is currently closed due to recent flooding.
The Nature Center will reopen this spring once repairs are completed. Information will be posted on the Naperville Park District’s website at www.napervilleparks.org/knochknollsnaturecenter once an anticipated date for reopening is known.
Other outdoor programs will run, weather permitting
Indoor programs at Knoch Knolls Nature Center have been cancelled due to necessary repairs following water damage to the building created by a sanitary sewer backup on March 30, 2017, that flooded the facility with 2 inches of water, officials said.
Outdoor programs at the Knoch Knolls Nature Center that will continue this spring include Fishin’ Kids on April 30, May 21 and June 25 and the Wildflower Walks, scheduled for April 30, May 14 and May 21. Fishin’ Kids is $19 per child for Naperville residents ($29 for nonresidents) and Wildflower Walks are free, however, registration is required for both programs.
To register online, visit www.napervilleparks.org.
Note that portable toilets have been placed at Knoch Knolls Park to serve visitors while the Nature Center is closed. Repairs could take six to eight weeks.
