SRC Stormwater Runoff Mismanagement

SRC Stormwater Runoff Mismanagement seeks to hold Pace, FL city officials responsible for constant flooding putting their homes and lives at risk. Throughout the 20th century, Pace remained a small, rural community in the Florida Panhandle. However, since 1980, Pace has grown rapidly into a fast-growing bedroom community of Pensacola – bringing massive development and compromising wetlands and forests that typically absorb stormwater. SRC Stormwater Runoff Mismanagement demands action from the city and Santa Rosa County, citing attempts to clean out ditches, pipes and retention ponds as too little, too late. Because of the lack of insurance that many do not qualify for or can’t afford, flooding in homes is devastating. The goal for the future is to educate the community and create safe outlets for the flooding caused by storms and excessive rain.

Development in Pace is transforming extensive areas of forest into impervious surfaces, giving rainwater fewer places to go. SRC Stormwater Runoff Mismanagement has worked to stop the consequent flooding through actions like supporting their zoning board’s 2021 recommendations: stop clearcutting of large tracts and leave a 50-foot buffer around wetlands. These restrictions would preserve a quarter of every new housing development as native forest, allowing it to capture water and slow it down enough to sink into the soil. This would not only reduce flooding but also help to refill the Florida aquifer that, especially in places near the coast, like Pace, is being infiltrated by salt water, making the groundwater unsuitable for drinking. The zoning recommendations have so far not been approved, but Deb Bankes and the group’s 900-plus Facebook members continue to keep each other informed about county commissioners meetings and other opportunities they hope to use to keep their houses dry.

For more information:

Hurricane Sally’s Major Flooding Exposes Flaws in FEMA Maps – Scientific American, September 2020

Pace residents make plea to commissioners over flooding concerns – WEAR-TV, July 2017

County vows to research flooding problems – Santa Rosa’s Press Gazette, June 2017

Pace residents want solutions after heavy flooding damages homes – Pensacola News Journal, June 2017