Emergency Response

Most stormwater work involves planned inspection, maintenance and repair. Sometimes, an unexpected failure or blockage requires a quick response to prevent further damage.

Emergency Tile Drain Repair

From flooded field to working farmland

What happened?

A large, dense root mass completely blocked an underground tile drain on agricultural land.

With nowhere for the water to go, the blockage caused significant upstream flooding and approximately three acres of productive agricultural field were underwater.

What did we do?

County crews located the underground blockage, excavated the area, removed the root mass and repaired the damaged tile drain.

Once the blockage was removed, water immediately began moving through the system again.

What happened next?

Within approximately 1.5 days, the entire three-acre flooded area had drained.

Even with continued heavy rainfall, the repaired drainage system continued to function and the field was restored to crop production.

Why does it matter?

Drainage infrastructure can be difficult to see until something goes wrong.

This repair shows why maintaining functioning drainage systems and having the ability to respond when problems occur is important for protecting agricultural land, surrounding properties and the local economy.

See the repair and results