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With near-record rainfall this May, a Madison homeowner says a detention pond in his backyard is causing more problems than ever.

The detention pond behind Issac Sakyi-Addo's home has been a constant frustration for over 16 years. He believes drainage issues have worsened since nearby construction began, and now water is just sitting there for days. When Sakyi-Addo bought the house in 2009, he said no one told him the deep slope in the backyard was actually a detention pond meant to hold rain runoff periodically. Just days after moving in, a storm filled the pond for the first time and it has not stopped being a headache since.

Sakyi-Addo said the city told him years ago that while the pond sits on his property, the land belongs to the city. At one point, the city added rocks around the intake ditch to help with erosion, but Sakyi-Addo said drainage has slowed significantly since construction started on nearby Pump House Road.

"But then they blocked the outlet, and so this is water from just yesterday, and it's been sitting here — who knows where it's going," Sakyi-Addo said.

He said he spoke to someone at the construction site more than a week ago and was told they were installing larger drainage pipes to help with runoff. Sakyi-Addo said the on-site manager looked at the pond and told him they would come to fix the drain, but that still has not been taken care of.

"It's obvious this cannot be put off because we are going to be having mosquitoes and other problems which may not even be as serious as the water seeping in places that we don't want," he said.

About five years ago, part of the retaining wall off Sakyi-Addo's back porch partially collapsed after heavy rain. Now, another portion is leaning. ÉçÇøºÚÁÏ reached out to the city, which said the property is marked on city plans as personal, and the plot map states the homeowner must maintain the pond. Sakyi-Addo wants the city to reopen the blocked drain so water isn't constantly sitting in his yard, possibly affecting the retaining wall and the foundation of his home.

Now that he knows the property is his responsibility, he said he plans to slowly fill in parts of the pond once the new pipes are installed, hoping to reclaim more of his backyard.

The City of Madison does advise against his because it is still against city code to fill in a detention pond, and could cause flooding for the surrounding areas.