City of St. Louis takes new steps to work with MSD to buy out properties in Ellendale following July flooding

ST. LOUIS (KMOV) -- There is new momentum for buyouts in the Ellendale neighborhood as the Metropolitan Sewer District and the City of St. Louis continue talks of long-term fixes after July’s historic flooding.

Vacant and condemned houses are in every direction when walking down Odell Street in Ellendale, which sits on the western border of the city. Resident Andrew Schafer doesn’t blame historic flooding for their situation, but MSD.

“When I jumped out into that water to save my kids, dogs, and wife to safety, I could have been electrocuted,” Schafer shared. “MSD doesn’t seem to care about that. You’re going to buy me out, that’s great. You’re going to buy four walls and a roof.”

His next-door neighbors, Jeffrey and Debbie Boshans, say they often have conversations about a buyout. Still, they don’t want to lose their neighborhood.

“Yes we want to start looking but I want to make sure I’m ready to go so I need to know when to go,” Jeffrey explained. “So I need a timetable from them.”

The timetable, once murky, is now more clear as the week unfolds.

MSD told the Board of Aldermen on Wednesday the best path forward is buyouts.

“We are designing facilities, we will offer buyouts in the area of construction needed for the waste project,” MSD CEO Brian Hoelscher explained at the city’s public safety meeting. “A shaft down River Des Pere and in that footprint four existing homes. Right now, we will offer those four houses a buyout.”

Hoelscher took a series of questions from aldermen, including Ward 24 Alderman Bret Narayan, about why MSD points to the River Des Peres for residents dealing with several feet of sewage backup in their basements in July.

“There are not flood control structures on the River Des Peres, and no pumps,” Hoelscher explained. “Just a gate to keep the river from flooding back into the area and interrupt wastewater collection when there is no rain. This is the way it builds. When an area gets flooded, the sewer system gets flooded as well. Sewer system gets filled up so where that area water is supposed to go out gets filled up.”

Narayan brought up a pump station or a levee as possible fixes to lessen the burden on the River Des Peres. Hoelscher said that wouldn’t make a difference for July 2022 because of the large amount of rain in a short amount of time. Plus, he added those projects would be flood mitigation, so that’s on the city of St. Louis as flood plain manager.

“Rain in the northwest flows into that area. Once water from higher evaluation hits the River Des Peres and sewer system its going to pop manhole covers, and flood basements. We see that in university city, webster groves, it happens everywhere. That’s what happens. The issue when there are homes built in flood plains we have to have a system, the flood plain fills, the system gets flooded,” Hoelscher continued.

MSD Spokesperson Sean Hadley met News 4 on Odell a few hours after that meeting with city leaders. He said more partners are needed to make offers on the remaining houses in the flood plain.

“There’s no money, It’s not a dodge on the issue,” Hadley explained. “We’re not the flood plain manager. That’s up to each municipality individually and they need to step up and take some ownership. We’re at the table working with them.”

The list of municipalities now includes the City of St. Louis. An application for $1.76 million in federal grant money is now under review at the state level. The city said those dollars could be used to buy out an additional 20 houses.

Emergency Management Commissioner Sarah Russell told News 4 it is unknown how long it will take for the funds to be approved.

“We’re all trying to work together to meet the needs of the community,” Russell said.

Hoelscher did remind city aldermen of three efforts MSD made, most recently in 2019, to ask voters for the ability to buy out properties in flood plains outside of the agency’s jurisdiction of sewer management.

“It failed. It would assist to resolve a lot of these issues with buyouts,” Hoelscher explained. “We’ll try again in October in 2024.”

As for Schafer, he said both MSD and the city are responsible for this mess and sees the buyouts as damage control.

“It’s going to keep happening until they fix their problems. We’ve had hard long rains before. When they do their job, when they open their gates and things run when they are supposed to, we don’t have problems,” Schafer said.

Schafter told News 4 he blames the flooding over the summer on a sewer inlet covered by leaves and trash. We had Hadley take a look at that inlet. He said a single inlet wouldn’t make a difference with nine inches of rainfall. News 4 was there when he called and scheduled a crew to come out and clean up the MSD-owned land.

MSD said buyouts with these first four properties are expected to be complete within the next year. The land is planned to be a mobilization area for vehicles and other equipment.

These conversations between MSD and the City will continue with a meeting Thursday to further discuss possible long-term fixes for a Ellendale and beyond.

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