Swollen Creeks: Part One

Sunday morning, a slow moving cluster of very heavy showers and thunderstorms made its way across the Allentown area. The following pictures are of Cedar Beach during that rain event. We have had a wet summer thus far, and on account of all that recent rainfall we were under a flash flood watch. I saw no flash flood Sunday morning but the creek was certainly full.





There are many factors besides rainfall that lead to flooding situations in our parks. Flooding is actually worse now because the agricultural fields that at one time surrounded our city have been replaced with housing developments. Without the fields, there is a lot of run off with no place to go but down; and that means into our creeks.


Another major factor in creek flooding is urban storm run off. Down at Trout Creek Parkway on Sunday morning, the creek was very full and evidence of a significant amount of storm water drainage was present.





Having excess urban storm water drain into a creek is in some cases the cheapest and most effective way to deal with the problem. However, it is not a good environmental solution. Storm water that runs down city streets becomes full of pollutants and those pollutants in turn affect our creeks negatively.

More to come on this important issue.