City of Knoxville - Stormwater Drainage Systems

STORMWATER DRAINAGE SYSTEMS

Civil Engineering Division
Stormwater Engineering Division
Traffic Engineering Division

City of Knoxville
Engineering Department
Stormwater Engineering Division

Request For Service (RFS)

The Stormwater Engineering Division takes requests to investigate drainage problems and answers questions from Knoxville citizens and businesses. Many of the requests are received from the City of Knoxville 311 Customer Service Center. A customer service representative enters the service request into a tracking system and forwards the appropriate requests to the Stormwater Engineering Division. Concerns may also be reported by telephone (865 / 215 - 2148), letter (City County Building, 400 Main Street, Suite 480, Knoxville, Tennessee 37902), or fax (865 / 215 -2631). Please keep requests and questions to the point, and completely describe the problem in a legible and articulate manner. All requests are entered into a searchable and organized database kept by the Stormwater Engineering Division for future reference.

Requests are handled in the order received, and in most cases a stormwater inspector will reply to the requesting person with the resolution. The Stormwater Engineering Division may consult electronic map files and paper records as part of a preliminary analysis prior to the site visit. If the drainage problem is caused by a city-owned drainage system, a work order is written and city personnel are dispatched to correct the deficiency.

Common Stormwater drainage solutions are:

Removing debris, trash or sediment that is clogging a pipe or catch basin

Regrading a ditch or swale

Minor repairs to a culvert or pipe to restore the original capacity

In many instances, the drainage problem occurs on private property for which the City does not incur responsibility. The stormwater inspector may or may not be able to suggest a solution. See Appendix C of the Land Development Manual for Policy 07 (Maintenance Responsibility for Stormwater Drainage Systems).

Oftentimes, basement flooding and wet crawlspaces are due to improper roof drains and site grading. See RH-12 (Tips For Wet Basement and Crawl Spaces) in the Knoxville BMP Manual for additional information.