FAIRHOPE, Ala. - Originally intended to capture stormwater runoff from the Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. shopping center and vicinity, an adjacent retention pond now receives more rain water and possible pollutants from other parking lots and impervious surfaces than first meant to handle.

And the retention pond itself has degraded over time and is not doing the job designed for, according to a local environmental group.

“It is one of the more serious environmental issues in the city,” said Jim Horner, chairman of the Fairhope Environmental Advisory Board, to the city’s Planning Commission at its monthly meeting this week. Problems at the “Winn-Dixie detention pond,” as it’s called, have been a focus of the environmental group for the past three years, he said.

An engineer with a local firm made a presentation Monday on behalf of FEAB about some approaches to addressing the problems identified there.

Trey Jinright of Jade Consulting told the commission the detention pond now carries stormwater runoff from a much larger drainage basin than initially planned, which includes other shopping centers at the intersection of Fairhope Avenue and Greeno Road.

He said some conventional modifications could be made to the detention pond, such as excavations to increase holding capacity and installation of a weir to decrease the discharge rate.

But that would “still burden one pond with the entire watershed with not only a lot of water but a lot of water at one time,” according to his presentation. “It may help reduce flooding somewhat but is not very effective for increased water quality.”

Alternatives to that approach could involve installing a number of much smaller “bio-retention basins” in parking lots throughout the area, he said.

The detention pond could also be reconfigured to handle water flow in a different and more effective manner, Jinright said, and made to look a “lot nicer aesthetically.”

It would also be “very easy to make it look like a natural wetland area,” he said.

One commission member, Dick Charles, questioned whether local voters would have any interest in funding a project like this, after a proposal to fund a stormwater authority in the county, which was identified by opponents as a “rain tax,” was roundly defeated in November.

Horner said money is available for projects in the Fairhope area from a BP fund that must be used for environmental projects and said his group will encourage the mayor and City Council to address problems at the detention pond with some of those funds.

“Some people are wondering why shopping bags from Winn Dixie are ending up downstream in Cowpen Creek,” he said, as evidence of one problem with the existing detention pond.

In other business, the commission approved the request of Clay Adams of Walcott Adams Verneuille Architects for final plat approval of Boise Lane subdivision, a two-lot minor division. The property is located on the northeast corner of the intersection of Magnolia and Boise lanes. The commission denied a request for a subdivision of the same property in 2009, following a fire and destruction of a house on the land. The property has changed ownership and additional modifications were made in the request regarding zoning requirements, which led to the planning department’s recommendation in favor of the request, according to city staff. The property is now owned by Eugenia McCown, according to city records.