Annapolis business owner says new City Dock stormwater system can't come soon enough

Annapolis officials say their flood mitigation project at City Dock will replace an aging stormwater system that can no longer keep up with flooding. 

One downtown business owner, however, says a recent pump replacement proves those upgrades should've happened years ago. 

This week, the city replaced an existing stormwater pump beneath the waterfront after the owner of Storm Brothers Ice Cream says he convinced the project's contractor to take a look. 

"We pulled the membrane up, and underneath it we discovered the pumps didn't work. One of them was in such bad shape, I mean you could just tell by looking at it," said owner Sveinn Storm. 

He says the replacement reinforces concerns that he's raised for years. He believes it confirms the aging stormwater system has been failing to protect downtown, and thousands of dollars in flood damage may have been avoided if the upgrades happened sooner. 

"It devastated my business and other people's businesses, but the city wouldn't correct it," Storm said. 

City officials say the pump was replaced as part of the ongoing City Dock project — not because it had failed. 

The city says the existing pumps were functioning, but they weren't designed to handle the increasingly frequent flooding downtown experiences today.

"Any time we have the high tides, then they were coming back up through here and all onto the street," said Storm. 

Officials say that's why the project will include an entirely new stormwater system. 

When complete, the new pumps will each be capable of moving up to 10,000 gallons of water per minute. The existing pumps only move about 100 gallons per minute — a dramatic increase the city says will better protect downtown businesses from both heavy rain and tidal flooding.