Midway pleads for stormwater upgrade

By Martin E. Comas Orlando Sentinel

On most summer mornings — especially on days after a heavy downpour — Ernest Brown must slip into rubber boots to retrieve his newspaper at the end of a flooded driveway.

He and other residents of Seminole County’s historic Midway neighborhood say the standing rainwater in their streets, yards and ditches is the result of years of the county’s failure to upgrade the drainage system, along with the construction of new homes on old farmland surrounding their neighborhood that has sent stormwater flowing into their community.

“Imagine Midway as a bowl,” resident Emory Green Jr. said. “And as you have construction around Midway, all that water has nowhere to go but to drain into Midway. That’s the problem we have in Midway ... The Midway community should have an upgraded stormwater system and a sewer system.”

While not making promises, county officials pledged to try to develop a long-term solution to resolve the drainage woes in the community of about 2,000 residents and more than 500 households that sits between Lake Monroe and the Orlando Sanford International Airport.

Because Midway doesn’t have a central sewer system, the flooding often leads to backed up septic tanks on low-lying lots with homes dating back to the 1950s. Street drains are clogged with overgrown vegetation, residents say, creating a noxious brew of rainwater mixed with sewage.

“Please help,” resident Rosemary Sheppard said, pleading with Seminole commissioners. “It’s horrible, and we need help. ... I haven’t been able to go out on our large screened-in porch because of the fumes, because the water has sat for so long. It is well-documented that water stagnation creates a major environmental hazard as it becomes a breeding ground for dangerous bacteria and parasites and disease-carrying mosquitoes that put our children at risk, who must walk to school in the middle of the street to avoid large pools of water blocking pedestrian walkways.”

But county officials said Seminole lacks the millions of dollars it would take to renovate the decades-old stormwater system in Midway and provide every property with a sewer connection.

“I understand the frustration of the people out in the Midway community,” Commissioner Brenda Carey said. “But we need a plan, even [if] it’s a multi-year plan ... And I think the residents don’t care if it’s a multi-year plan, as long as they know something is going to happen.”

Even so, she added that other Seminole communities face a similar predicament as Midway, including the historic Bookertown community, just west of Interstate 4 and south of the St. Johns River.

“It’s an old stormwater system [in Midway],” Carey said. “As everywhere in the county, our ground is saturated. All our ditches are full. ... We are suffering right now from the effects of a lot of water, but there’s nowhere for it to go.”

Commissioners said infrastructure improvements could be paid for with federal community development block grants.

But residents said chronic flooding dates back decades and Seminole has long put off modernizing the stormwater infrastructure.

They point out county workers seldom come out to clear retention ponds, drains and ditches. Many of the roads lack curbs or gutters that help direct the flow of water. Streets are pockmarked with holes and cracks.

Homes dating to the 1950s sit on lower ground as the newer houses were built by developers who raised the elevation. To prevent flooding, some homeowners have carved out ditches around their properties, giving the appearance of moats.

“I’m 43 years old and I grew up in Midway,” Green said. “And I’m ashamed that after 43 years, I’m still raising my children on the same infrastructure that I was raised on.”

Hundreds of new homes have been built around Midway in recent years. Midway residents worry that new subdivisions being proposed along Celery Avenue to the north and Cameroon Avenue to the east will exacerbate the drainage problems.

That former farmland around Midway — once used to grow celery and citrus and graze cattle — absorbed much of the rainwater, residents said.

Commissioners directed county staff to find solutions for the problems plaguing Midway and present a report in coming weeks. Commissioners also asked the Florida Department of Health in Seminole County to conduct a health-assessment study of the Midway community regarding the standing water and backed-up septic tanks.

Meanwhile, residents wait for the problems in their community to be fixed.

“They’ve put a Band-Aid on this problem for a long time,” said Jones, 69, who has lived in Midway for nearly his entire life. “They’ve always made us promises, but they’ve never done anything.”

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