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Neighborhood near Chaparral High deals with major storm drainage issues

Residents say this has been happening for over two years and debris ends up all over their street.

KILLEEN, Texas — A small subdivision on Cedar Ridge Circle, a street just feet away from Chaparral High School in Killeen, is having serious water drainage problems after the high school was built.

When it rains or even when a homeowner uses their sprinkler system, the water streaming through the water drainage way fills up within 30 minutes, according to residents.

When the water spreads, it consumes part of people's homes. Because of this, it is dampening the grass on the land and is slowly destroying the foundation of some of the homes.

Credit: Anonymous Killeen resident

Sheila Barton has lived in the neighborhood for 30 years and says this was never an issue until Chaparral High construction began a few years ago.

"I got an estimate of $10,000 to fix the foundation of my home. But I can't even do that until my home gets leveled out. They are telling us that it's our problem which it's not our problem. It's the city and the county's problem when they built this school," Barton explained.

To help lower the water flow, KISD officials built a detention pond in between the school and the homes, but the pond has not done much to slow down the water coming through the stream.

When this water flows through the area, debris and trash is left spread around the neighborhood.

Credit: Anonymous resident

Residents have reached out to KISD and the county to figure out who can help clear this drain and alleviate the excessive flooding. 

Bell County engineer Bryan Neaves told 6 News that he is well aware of the issue. Unfortunately because this area is private property and not owned by the county, the county legally cannot clear the drains or fix anything built by the district. 

"I can't go work on private property with taxpayer dollars," Neaves explained. "They are responsible for those ditches, the owners of the property of those easements there are required to keep those ditches cleaned out. Some of those, obviously, have not been done."

Neaves says it's the responsibility of the property owners to clean the drains of debris to stop the major flooding. Not the district nor the county.

In a letter from KISD Executive Director for Facility Services Adam Rich it says in part:

City and County staff determined that the District's design was in full compliance with all applicable codes or ordinances, and the District's consultants found no evidence that the school's construction had improperly directed excess water into the channels or the surrounding neighborhood. Rather, engineers for the City.

Barton's properties had become overgrown to the point that vegetation was impeding water flow through the channel.

Although the District's consultants, as supported by the City and County engineers, found no evidence that the District's activities had been improper.

An anonymous Killeen resident is advocating for all of the homes affected by this issue and says they will do what is necessary to hold the county accountable.

"There is no way I'm really going back and re-designing this whole thing because it said and done. But if it's going to be here, they need to accommodate their watershed from public entity to a private entity. They should be responsible for making sure that the downstream side can accommodate that," They said. 

The district said they will reimburse the anonymous person for renting equipment to clear the drains.

6 News will continue to follow this story as efforts to clear the drain continue. 

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