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News &Obs erver(Print Friendly) : http : //www . . . /sunday/fronUStory/251362p-238012c . html http : // l52 . 52 . 16 . 193 /standing/help/tools/_scripts/friendly - print . cgi 34 n dE.Vi 1AW F s o. b server. o Published : Sunday , November 26 , 2000 7 : 42 p . m . EST Region I s flood risk rising By RICHARD STRADLING AND BARBARA BARRETT , Staff Writers As roofs , streets and parking lots spread across the Triangle , the region is awash in a rising tide of storm water . Rain that once soaked into the ground now overflows gutters and storm drains , picking up oil , gasoline , trash and silt . Dirty water scours the banks of creeks , turning them into little more than drainage ditches . Streams jump their banks more often . The result : Water from the worst downpours seeps into homes and businesses that never used to flood , while neighborhoods with a history of flooding are waterlogged more often . Governments must spend millions to replace undersized storm water pipes and culverts and buy out flood - prone property . And the state and federal governments say storm water has become a major source of water pollution . " Actually it affects us all , " said Raleigh City Councilman John Odom . " And it ' s not going away at all . It ' s getting worse . " Triangle residents were spared the full impact of development - related flooding for years , because tropical storms rarely struck the region . That lull ended in 1996 with Hurricane Fran . Today , because of development , the National Weather Service issues flash flood warnings for storms that wouldn ' t have gotten much notice 20 or 30 years ago . " We are aware of that , " said National Weather Service meteorologist George Lemons , " and we try to give people sufficient notice . " To control the water washing over the Triangle , cities and towns are looking at new regulations . They are forcing developers to come up with ways to capture and filter the storm water on their property . And they are creating development -free zones , or buffers , along creeks and rivers , to let more rainwater seep into the ground . But mimicking nature ' s ability to hold and cleanse water is expensive and far from foolproof . And local officials face apathy about a problem that doesn ' t seem like one when it ' s not raining . No - longer- Little Creek The flow of storm water surprised Jack Olin and the other residents along Little Creek one night in July , when a line of thunderstorms stalled over Chapel Hill , dropping up to 7 inches of rain in a few hours . Water poured into drains and ditches , building into torrents that overwhelmed creeks , pushed open doors at Eastgate Shopping Center and toppled refrigerators inside apartments at Camelot Village . About a mile downstream from Eastgate , Little Creek jumped its banks , rising into yards and basements and the Pontiac Grand Prix in Olin ' s driveway . As much as 3 feet of muddy water washed over Cleland Drive , blocking utility workers from a disabled pump station as more than 2 million gallons of untreated sewage spilled into the creek . " No question that the development that ' s been going on north of us is responsible for what ' s happened down here , " Olin said . Development alone didn ' t cause the flooding in Chapel Hill , experts say , but it did make it worse . Development in the Triangle also didn ' t cause the flooding Down East after hurricanes Fran and Floyd . But it undoubtedly aggravated the floods , said Stan Riggs , a geology professor at East Carolina University in Greenville . " If you put more water in up there , that means we ' re going to go under water faster down here , " Riggs said . No one has quantified how much excess storm water development produces in the Triangle . Hard surfaces can increase flooding in streams miles away , simply by channeling storm water into pipes instead of letting the ground absorb it . 1 of 4 11 /27/2000 8 : 54 AM