Peckman River flood plan moves closer to reality

By: Matt Fagan
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... A plan to alleviate flooding along the Peckman River in Little Falls and Woodland Park moved closer to reality when the Army Corps of Engineers signed off on the report last week. [05/05/2020]
..... The $146 million project, which is not yet a done deal, calls for constructing a 1,500-foot-long, 40-foot-wide double box water diversion culvert from the Peckman River to the Passaic River.
..... the plan must still be approved by the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works and the Office of Management and Budget before it's submitted to Congress for authorization and funds.
..... The entire area has long been known for floods, and in the Woodland Park and Little falls area, especially in the Jackson Park section, flash floods are nothing new. Fast-rising water form the Peckman River caused a flood that killed a Little falls man during Hurricane Floyd in 1999 and a flood that caused tens of millions of dollars in manage in 2011 during Hurricane Ireme.
..... In 2018, a freakish Au guest storm dumped 5 inches of rainwater in just a few hours and caused the river to overflwo its banks and flood the area, Dozens of vehicles from a nearby dealership were swept down the river, and homes and businesses were flooded, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.
.... "That shows it doesn't have to be a tropical storm" to cause flooding to the area, Woodland Park Mayor Keith Kazmark said.
..... Before the Army Corps of Engineers signed off on the plan report, its representatives, Kazmark, state officials, Little Falls Mayor James Daminano and Reparative Milie Sherrill discussed the plan virtually on Wednesday [05/06/2020] night.
..... It has been scaled down from an earlier $172 million proposal, with the removal of proposed flood gates.
..... "This is huge," Kazmark said of the corps' decision to approve the report for the Peckman River Basin Flood Risk Management Study.
.... Daminano said that when he was sworn in as mayor in 2017, expectations for this proposal also calls for:
* About 2,170 linear feet of levees and/or floodwalls.
* An additional 1,207 linear feet of levees and/or floodwalls would be constructed in the vicinity of Little falls High School, between the tack and baseball fields.
* As many as 16 structures would be elevated so their main flood elevations would be to a final height of a foot above the base flood elevation.
* As many as 38 structures to be wet floodproofed and four structures to be dry floodproofed.
..... The idea of a flood tunnel and other mitigation efforts has been discussed since Hurricane Floyd ravaged the area in September 1999.
..... "this is a momentous day for residents long impacted by flash floods from the Packman River," said Coronal Thomas Asbery, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District.
..... Kazmark said the proposed project will not affect residents farther south along the Passaic River. During major tropical storms, the flooding along the Peckman and its tributaries is almost immediate as water cascades down the steep hillsides.
..... Flooding of the Passaic River can take days, because storm runoff comes from upstream from the Ramapo, Pequannock and Wanaque rivers, which empty out into the Passaic River.
..... "By that time [Packman River floodwaters] will be in Newark Bay," Kazmark said.

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