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In 1987, a new house was built on 525 Orchard Park Road and there has been speculation that the draintile system may have been damaged during the driveway construction. However,we do not have any positive proof that the draintile was damaged at this time. The Pinnacle Report alleges that in 1994 the property owner of 615 Orchard Park Road did work that impacted the drainage in this area. In my recent phone conversation, this property owner stated that he has not done anything impact the drainage in this area. Since this area is all private property, any drainage projects would require easements from the property owners, and this property owner is not interested in granting any easements for a drainage project. Conclusion and Recommendations This area was draintiled in the 1950's,the exact location and type of system installed is unknown along with how good the system actually did function. Common practice at that time was to install short lengths of clay pipe for draintile systems. This system is 50 years now, and the fact that it is not functioning properly anymore is not surprising. There have been differing opinions and allegation presented regarding this situation which does not provide any conclusive proof of exactly what has transpired in this area. This area is all private property with almost all of water draining off private property,with only a very minimal amount of water draining from City or County Roads. The acquisition of easements would be required in order to complete a drainage project and obtaining cooperation from all of the property owners could be difficult. The City's policy for selecting drainage projects over the past several years has been to rank projects in the following priority order. • Projects to prevent flooding of structures. (No buildings are being threatened by the water levels in this area.) • Projects to prevent or correct erosion problems. (There is no existing erosion or the potential for future erosion in this area.) • Projects to correct wet areas with no structure damage or erosion are the lowest priority In addition,the City funded drainage projects selected over the past several years were in high density developed areas with substantial drainage from City streets. This project is in the low density 5 acre zoning area with virtually no public road drainage causing problems. Another consideration is the high value the City places on wetlands and ponds to reduce peak flows and improve water quality, so the completion of a project to drain a wetland and convey stormwater flows downstream faster is not in conformance with Orono's values and policies. The City's long term plan is for more ponding to treat stormwater. Also before the 1950's draintile installation to'allow farming this area was wetlands, and with the draintile failure is reverting back to the previous natural conditions. The staff recommendation is that this drainage issue is a low priority in terms of the City's overall goals and policies for wetland protection, stormwater treatment, drainage goals, and the current drainage situations.