Ask the Expert: 5 Questions with Jack Claud

As part of the Four Lakes of Chesapeake team’s efforts to share information about the community’s proposed design, we have enlisted expert consultants to provide their perspective on specific aspects of the project. This is the first of several such interviews, and we’ll be posting these Q&As and related videos through the coming weeks.

Jack Claud is assistant director of community development with Hoggard-Eure Associates, a well-respected land-planning firm that has provided engineering, surveying and planning services for decades in southeastern Virginia. Claud helped design the stormwater systems at Eagle Pointe. He has 41 years of experience in residential and commercial site design and has worked with Hoggard-Eure since 2014.

Below is a conversation, lightly edited for clarity, regarding stormwater management at Eagle Pointe and the proposed Four Lakes of Chesapeake community.

Question 1: Years ago, a major storm caused significant flooding across the area, including at Eagle Pointe. Can you describe what happened and how stormwater management systems worked?

JC: I helped design the site plan for phases 1 and 2 at Eagle Pointe, including the stormwater management planning. During that particular storm, the Elizabeth River level rose so high that it crested Cedar Road and filled the lake system in Eagle Pointe. After a few hours, the river receded, but rain kept falling. This led to flooding at the pump station and at the barn along Cahoon Parkway. As serious as that event was, the system worked as designed: It filled up, it held water everywhere it was safe to do so, it didn’t allow any stormwater to go into anybody’s home. There were a lot of places that were full, but that’s what they were designed to do.

Question 2: How did you model the stormwater flow to be sure homes will be protected and roads will remain passable under severe storms?

JC: We ran models for storm events at 5-year, 10-year, 25-year, 50-year and 100-year levels, and identified the level of flooding that would occur. We found flooding would typically be limited to elevated pond levels and backyard systems, but no homes would be affected by stormwater.

Question 3: With about 300 new homes planned at Four Lakes of Chesapeake, how will the development team be able to manage stormwater across all of that new impervious surface?

JC: When we design and build the new Four Lakes subdivision, that design will piggyback off of the existing stormwater design of Eagle Pointe. We’ll determine the run-off for the existing ground. We’ll then determine the additional run-off based off of the new roads, new roofs, new sidewalks and driveways.

The new streets are going to be designed to handle those flows and also to convey that water into the storm system. We have analyzed existing stormwater facilities at Eagle Pointe, including the effects of the storm from years ago. We have also modeled stormwater flow with the addition of Four Lakes’ homes and proposed stormwater facilities.

Under all scenarios, the measures that the development team will incorporate into the design will effectively manage stormwater and protect homes and roads from flooding.

Question 4: The Four Lakes of Chesapeake plan proposes to allow the Eagle Pointe community to use lake water for community irrigation. How will that work?

JC: When the golf course was open, lake water was used to irrigate the course, primarily in August and September. When the golf course closed, the outfall structure at Cedar Road was modified to remove plugs. This lowered the water level in all of the lakes by about 8 inches.

Under the Four Lakes plan, those plugs would be restored. This would allow lake levels to rise by 8 inches, providing plenty of flexibility for Eagle Pointe to pull water from the lakes for landscape irrigation. The city of Chesapeake provides them with a pretty expensive bill for irrigation. Because we’re able to go to the lake system and allow Eagle Pointe to start using that water for their own irrigation, or at least to supplement it, this would be a significant savings for Eagle Pointe.

An added benefit is that the plugs will still be removable for stormwater management purposes. If a hurricane or nor’easter is approaching, the plugs can be removed to lower the lake levels ahead of time. This will create more storage space for stormwater to flow into the lakes during a major storm event.

Question 5: What would you like residents to know about stormwater management in Eagle Pointe and Four Lakes of Chesapeake?

JC: The primary objective of a stormwater management system is to hold stormwater and prevent it from causing property damage. The true measure of that effectiveness is the actual named storm and how that system controls, handles, and maintains that water, and how it releases it back into the environment.

The stormwater systems at Eagle Pointe have performed exactly as we hoped they would, and as they were designed to. And we have had that named event. There was no property damage. The system held all the water, controlled the water and released the water exactly as it was designed.

Now that we’ve seen that (named) storm, we’re able to use that information to design this new subdivision and the improvements to Eagle Pointe as well. Eagle Pointe’s drainage system will be improved by the addition of this new subdivision.