Residents sound off over South Mountain flooding - NorthJersey.com
Somewhere during a Sept. 14 special meeting on the damage caused by Tropical Storm Irene, the heated discussion became less about the river and more about the infrastructure.
STAFF PHOTO BY HARRY TRUMBORE
Hatch Mott MacDonald engineers Leo Coakley, left, and Ron Piccolo explain proposed flood control measures during a special meeting held at Town Hall Sept. 14 to discuss damage caused by Tropical Storm Irene to residences in the South Mountain neighborhood.
"It had nothing to do with the river. It was the sewers." It almost became a mantra.
The meeting, held by the Township Committee's subcommittee on Irene, was meant to concentrate on the devastation in the South Mountain neighborhood and residents turned out in standing room only numbers.
To explain how the storm impacted the East Branch of the Rahway River, which flows along the neighborhood's eastern border, engineers from Hatch Mott MacDonald began the meeting with a PowerPoint presentation.
Engineer Leo Coakley told the audience that Irene was a storm of record-breaking proportions. A water flow gauge in Springfield just south of Millburn measured the Rahway River during Tropical Storm Floyd, which caused similar damage to South Mountain 12 years ago this week, at 7,990 cubic feet per second. The same gauge recorded a flow of 8,650 cubic feet per second for Irene at its peak.
What's more, Coakley said, the area had received more than eight inches of rain in the two weeks preceding Irene's arrival on Aug. 27: the ground was already saturated when the storm began.
While fielding comments and questions from the audience, Coakley explained that the floodwall built along the East Branch following Floyd was built as high as the Department of Environmental Protection allowed.
"If you build a wall, you're also losing water retention area, flood storage," he said. "That causes more water to flow downriver." A municipality could not completely protect itself at the expense of other communities downstream, he said. In short, residents might reduce their risk, but they will not be able to eliminate all flooding.
What was allowed, he said, was a floodwall that was just short of what would contain a 100-year flood.
"It was not allowed for Millburn to build higher than they did," Coakley said. He added that two major storms in 12 years would not allow a change in the 100-year flood restriction on the height of the floodwalls. If anything, he said, specifications have become "more stringent with less tolerance."
Coakley outlined a number of proposals to mitigate flooding, but residents focused on short-term measures that identified drainage improvement - particularly around Greenwood Drive, Ridgewood Road and Haran Circle, groundwater issues and sanitary sewer overflows as priorities to be addressed.
Responding to one resident's question, Coakley explained that the town's sanitary sewer system is not a closed system. It has openings for ventilation, plus the current system is old and some joints leak. It can be infiltrated by groundwater or overflowing storm sewers.
Coakley produced maps of three areas in South Mountain that he described as "backyard pockets" that could benefit from new sewer lines and pump stations.
"There's basically a bowl effect," he said. "The only way to get water out is through the storm sewer."
A new pump station would also be needed. On a second map, he showed proposed sewer upgrades throughout the neighborhood, and while residents examined the maps to see how their houses would be affected, Coakley cautioned that the improvements would only help any situation where the flood walls were not breached.
Coakley also noted some of the improvements on the maps had been proposed after Floyd but were never made because all of the necessary easements could not be obtained from residents whose properties were affected.
During the meeting, residents were emotional as they recounted their experiences and the damage they suffered. Mayor Sandra Haimoff and Committeman James Suell, members of the Subcommittee, asked residents to provide them with documentation of any kind to help direction the municipality's response to the storm.
"If you have photos, CDs...those are the things that are priceless to us," Suell said.
One resident recounted how the sewers were flooding the street long before water flowed over the floodwall.
Dr. Matthew Lipp claimed a remediation team had pronounced his Ridgewood Road home, which had flooded with raw sewage, as "toxic."
16 Sep, 2011--
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