Colorado Springs works on westside drainage

With more rain on the way, people already dealing with flooded basements have reason to worry tonight.

While the city can’t stop the weather, crews are working to alleviate flooding in the Mountain Shadows neighborhood.

Pipes from basements into yards are going off once a minute at some homes in the neighborhood.

All of the water keeps Keith Aiello busy.

“(I’ve) been out here about two weeks now, helping these guys take care of their drainage issues,” he said.

Working just as hard on a much larger project, crews hired by the city to clean out this retention pond near Wilson Ranch Park.

“Our debris basin had filled in,” said Tim Mitros from the city’s engineering department.

The view from above the pond doesn’t look like anything special, unless you know what to look for.

All of the rain that Colorado Springs saw in May brought a lot of debris and dirt down from the mountains down in what used to be the retention pond at Flying W Ranch, now little more than a small creek.

The amazing part is how it got so full.

“This filled up in basically a month,” said Mitros.

So what does the city plan to do with all of the dirt that it’s taking out of the pond?

“We’re re-purposing it to Rockrimmon,” said Mitros.

They’re doing that by taking it to another mitigation project on Tamarron Drive.

Aiello’s client is also making the best of a bad situation with this channel through the yard.

“The water coming out was literally digging a trench through their yard all the way down, so you might as well have something that looks good if you’re going to have a trench through your yard,” he said.

Mitros says that the Flying W Ranch and Rockrimmon projects are part of a $4 million emergency fund set up by the city.