FOLEY – The City of Foley is moving forward with a project to improve stormwater drainage in the Beulah area in southeast Foley.
Plans include removing silt from the area’s detention pond and adding features to reduce the amount of sediment entering the facility in the future. The Foley City Council recently voted to accept a grant from the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program to help fund the work.
Mayor Ralph Hellmich said the project will restore the pond to its original design standards and improve drainage in the surrounding neighborhood.
“This is about the closest thing we have to a regional detention facility,” Hellmich said. “It was created many years ago, and it’s still doing a really good job. We need to upgrade maintenance on it to get it back to design standards. It will be a better facility when all of this is done, and it fits into the master plan that we did for the Beulah Heights area.”
Councilman Charles Ebert III said sediment buildup has reduced the pond’s efficiency.
“For years, it was percolating so well that it never overflowed,” Ebert said. “As we captured all those sediments to keep them from going downstream, we kind of sealed the bottom.”
According to Leslie Gahagan, Foley’s sustainability and natural resources director, the project will include concrete structures designed to trap sediment before it reaches the pond. This will allow crews to remove the material during maintenance. Landscaping will also be added to enhance the appearance of the site.
Hellmich said this project is the first step in a broader effort to improve drainage and protect water quality in the Beulah area.
“This is the farthest downstream point, and we’ve got to make sure it handles it,” Hellmich said. “We also have upstream work to do, with culverts and change outs, different upgrades that we have to do. That will be coming. They’ve identified that in the study, but this is the very first thing that needs to be done as part of that.”