SC State conducting stormwater drainage study to map flooding on campus

ORANGEBURG, S.C. (WCSC) - South Carolina State University is conducting a stormwater drainage study to map areas of flooding on campus and to find remedies to decrease it.

They held a drop-in meeting on campus Thursday night to hear from students and professors about their flooding concerns. In partnership with the South Carolina Office of Resilience, the drainage study will assess existing stormwater infrastructure within the campus and its affiliated properties to identify flooding issues.

After gathering research, they plan to analyze existing drainage systems and will help develop mitigation projects.

Ken Davis, associate vice president for facilities management and operations at South Carolina State University, says flooding has been a consistent problem on campus since 2014.

He says that some academic buildings flood so badly that 75% of the time it downpours, they must cancel classes for a couple of days in those buildings.

The areas that typically experience flooding include the MLK Auditorium, Belcher Hall and the Crawford Hall Engineering Building. Residence halls that also experience some flooding include Mitchell Hall and University Village.

“When we get heavy rainfall, we have to sandbag to actually keep the water out of them,” Davis says. “This is a big help to the university, and we’re thankful for that help.”

SCOR has contracted Rummel, Klepper & Kahl, LLP to complete the stormwater drainage study for the university.

Randall Mungo is a water resource manager for RK&K Engineering and says solutions to help alleviate the drainage problems include bigger pipes, underground retention and retention ponds.

A couple of students and professors came to the drop-in meeting to point out locations where those solutions could go. He says hearing from the people who actually live and work on campus is vital to the stormwater drainage study.

“There’s been a student that gave us another place to look at and a professor here she came in and she pointed out, I think, three or four other places that we need to look at,” Mungo said. “So we’ll get in looking at those next week.”

Jennifer Cash attended the meeting to share the spots on campus that have flooded throughout the 23 years she has been teaching at SC State.

“There’s a little bit of a lower area, and we get water that comes in under the door because it just can’t drain away fast enough,” Cash says. “And so now they’ve got sandbags out there all the time, so the sandbags are ready, and they just have to position them in front of the doors.”

She says she looks forward to the day when the rainwater collects and drains in a controlled manner.

“This campus alone is almost 130 years old, so the infrastructure underground is that old,” Davis says. “The city is much older than that. The infrastructure is the same, so until there’s things put in place to increase the infrastructure of this underground, we’re going to face this.”

The study is funded by a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant-Mitigation that is allocated by the South Carolina Office of Resilience.