The Oak Lawn sewer department is making great strides addressing flooding with its Stony Creek Flooding project, a village trustee said.

The project involves creating water retention areas and was started several years ago, but it is already easing pressure on the town’s water lines, said Trustee Alex Olejniczak, who represents District 2.

The project is intended to take stormwater out of the wastewater system, which can overwhelm that system, and reduce flooding during times of torrential rainfall.

“You got to understand, when you get hit with water, and we’re starting to get hit with large amounts of water, we don’t have a lot of retention in Oak Lawn,” Olejniczak said. “Were looking to use grounds that already exist where we can build short-term retention.”

Part of the project includes the Melvina Ditch Reservoir project that the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District started last year. Rather than channel the water into the wastewater pipes, rainwater will be routed toward Stony Creek, which empties into the Cal-Sag Channel.

“The first thing we went after is making sure the infrastructure is up to date,” Olejniczak said. “We’ve been working on the infrastructure for 10 years.”

Besides creating retention areas, the village is also fixing old pipes. Olejniczak said the village is about two-thirds of the way through fixing the old pipes. However, he said retention is also important because even the pipes can fill with water during heavy rains, which can cause flooding.

“That’s why we’re looking to increase the amount of water we can store,” Olejniczak said. “We’ve redone Oak Lawn Lake, we dredged Oak Lawn Lake, and that’s given us more capacity.”

Workers have also cleared fallen trees and sediment from Stony Creek.

The project is funded by the MWRD, federal funds and county funds. The MWRD has been working on this issue for the better part of two decades, Olejniczak said, and he’s already starting to notice results, though residents might still see some flooding, especially in low-lying areas.

“If we get hit with 2 inches in an hour, you’re going to have stacking up,” he said. “But when the system catches up, it’ll start flowing through, but yes, we’ve seen an increase in flowing. But there are lower-lying areas where we have work to do. The more storage capacity, the better it’s going to be.”

He said the village still needs to build more retention areas, particularly behind the cemetery.

“We’ll have more direction on the project,” Olejniczak said. “This is not a one-and-done. This is the first part of addressing it. This is a long-term plan.”

Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.