Wealthy suburbs won't pay for flood project

Bellevue, Kentucky! Home of this fine blog!

Bellevue, a working-class town, features the mouth of Covert Run Creek. Hard-working residents of Covert Run Pike have been increasingly plagued by floods that have ruined their homes and even washed away their cars.

The floodwaters are also dirty and pose health risks. Nearby streams have some of the highest fecal coliform counts in the area.

This has been a more frequent occurrence not just because of the heavy rains we've had lately, but also because of development upstream that causes erosion and other issues.

Upstream development usually consists of subdivisions for the very rich. Almost all local cities and counties rubber-stamp development like this. Development seems to be approved regardless of how it will affect residents downstream.

In this case, the affluent suburb of Fort Thomas is the site of most of the development in question. Not all of this development is in Fort Thomas, but a disproportionate amount of it is.

After many broken promises, Bellevue is finally planning to build new storm pipes to put the kibosh on these floods - at a cost of $1,000,000. Who pays for it? Not Fort Thomas or any other wealthy communities. Bellevue taxpayers are paying for a good portion of it. The state highway department and the sanitation district are paying even more.

One has to ask why the richer areas are never held responsible for their share.

Another factor in the increase in flooding is the construction of Interstate 471, which created issues at the bottom of Covert Run Creek. Fact is, I-471 was designed primarily to link more affluent areas with Cincinnati. Those areas aren't paying anything to clean up the Covert Run floods either.

There's even a website about the Bellevue flooding:

http://www.bellevuefloods.com

I'm a left-wing populist who is certainly adamant that the wealthiest communities should pay their share.

(Source: http://nky.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20090708/NEWS0103/907090341)