Add developments to list of flooding culprits

I was glad to read your July 23 editorial titled, “The biggest culprits in flooding.” I'm sure most readers would agree with your reasoning. The agriculture community was probably amazed to see that your editorial did not place the blame game on farming and make drainage tile the chief villain.

Your list of the two biggest culprits was probably educational to many of your readers. I would like to add another culprit to your list:

Housing developments and other developments that add more concrete surfaces. This rainfall has no place to go. It is surface runoff which goes directly down the drainage waterways to the closest river. But to top it off, with it, goes all that “crap” people put on their lawns to make an attractive yard, and ends up in our streams.

According to the July 2010 issue of “Better Homes and Gardens,” 300 gallons of water is shed off every 1,000 square feet of roof from a half-inch rainfall. That is almost unbelievable but this provides my reasoning for culprit number three.

Thanks for giving the farmers credit but let's not forget the city's contribution as one of the chief villains.

Grace Zimmerman

Anamosa