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Stormwater from the Roof of City Gym

This is a portion of the architect's drawing calculating the gallons per minute of rainwater that will flow from the new gym during a 4.25 inch rain in 1 hour.


 

I spent some serious dough back in 2019 merely trying to get ICISD to measure the amount of stormwater runoff that they were planning to direct into our streets, my property, my neighbors' property, our City Park and our football stadium if they built the proposed gym and cafeteria kitchen as planned with the bond funds. If you would like your government to be a good Scout and plan ahead for the disaster they are about to unleash upon you, try out the Texas Private Real Property Rights Preservation Act for size. (The law itself is at Chapter 2007 of the Texas Government Code.) In the hands of a school board and former superintendent hell bent on spending tax payer dollars for a new gym and a football field that needs to be converted from 11 man to 6 man, such private property right protection laws are as counter intuitive as government budgeting for disasters in advance, what I call the Grand Mistake.


To date, since 2019 and after many, many Public Information Act requests, ICISD has refused to release any data on how much stormwater from all the impervious cover related to the new gym and cafeteria kitchen. But, I found a back door that offers some insight. Some.


Architects are required to meet certain standards under the International Plumbing Code for roof drainage systems. Gutters, downspouts, scuppers, etc. all have to have the capacity to manage the worst of the worst rain storms - the 100 year flood. Here is that law.


And here, obtained through my Public Information Act request to ICISD, is ICISD's architect Jeff Potter's architectural drawing for the roof of the gym intended to comply with the IPC requirements.


According to this document, the roof system for the entire gym must be capable of managing 1,547.7 gallons of stormwater per minute in a rain of 4.25 inches per hour, the estimate used for a 100 year flood. Were it to rain 4.25 inches in an hour, that would be 1,547.7 x 60 minutes = 92,862 gallons! My estimate is that would be about 1/3 of an acre foot of water, or 1 acre of water 4 inches deep. In one hour, from the roof.


To be accurate, this relates only to the rainfall upon the roof of the gym. The area of the gym exterior walls, sidewalks and parking, including the Grand Mistake Parking Lot, would have to be calculated by someone with far greater math skills than me to come up with a more precise and comprehensive figure. There is also the stormwater from the upper end of the basin that has to be added.


So, 92,862 gallons in an hour is merely a starting figure. Is that enough for ICISD to develop an emergency plan to protect the children in its care and to protect its down elevation neighbors in a time of flooding...flooding that it contributes to from its own campus?


We shall see when the rains come. But the District's refusal to share the public documents that will forecast a more accurate flood event than I can predict here is causing me to think that when the rains do come it is going to deny all responsibility.


I hate to think that way, but the truth is they already have the data.



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© 2025 by George Noelke

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