Flood mitigation is made a priority

By Yael Katzwer Editor

President Joe Biden signed federal legislation on Dec. 28 that includes provisions to make the Rahway River flood mitigation study a national priority. Through the efforts of Sens. Cory Booker and Bob Menendez, and U.S. Reps. Donald M. Payne Jr. and Tom Malinowski — as well as through the consistent work of the Mayors Council Rahway River Watershed Flood Control — language was inserted into the 2022 Federal Water Resources Development Act to move the Rahway River flood mitigation plan forward. Section 203 states that the study should be “expedited and proceed to preconstruction” for flood risk management in Section 336 of the Water Resources Development Act.

The 2022 Water Resources Development Act was included in the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2023. The WRDA, signed biennially, authorizes federal flood control, navigation and ecosystem improvements.

The state of New Jersey is now required to sign on to be a co-sponsor of the next phase of the study to move the project ahead.

Leaders and residents in Union and Essex counties have long been urging officials to finalize the Rahway River floodmitigation plan and pass U.S. Army Corps of Engineers funding for construction of Rahway River flood mitigation.

The Mayors Council Rahway River Watershed Flood Control, which was organized after Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, consists of mayors, township committee members, engineers and township administrators serving communities along the Rahway River and has been working with the USACE and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to come to a solution to protect residents.

In January 2022, the USACE announced its allocation of funds of $1.5 million to complete the flood protection feasibility study it had started after Tropical Storm Irene. The USACE previously evaluated 21 alternatives and even sent the entire evaluation to the New England Army Corps office, which is known for its expertise on dams.

“Over the past few years, over $6.5 million of federal and state funds have been used on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers evaluation of a regional flood mitigation plan for the upper portion of the Rahway River,” former Cranford Mayor Dan Aschenbach, who serves as spokesperson for the Mayors Council Rahway River Watershed Flood Control, said in a press statement. “Hydraulic and hydrologic engineers, environmental analysts, and economists have scoured the possibilities with 18 different alternatives weighed and assessed for their costs and benefits. Politics had nothing to do with the lack of construction progress. The studies undertaken by the nation’s experts have taken time because the solutions are challenging.

“While criticism about how long this has taken is understandable, if it was easy, the work would have been done,” Aschenbach continued.

Since 2013, 19 different alternatives to mitigate flooding have been evaluated, and several additional options are now under consideration, all in an attempt to stem the flooding from the Rahway River during severe weather conditions.

The Rahway River flows through Union, Essex and Middlesex counties. Surrounding communities, especially Cranford and Springfield, have suffered severe, widespread flooding on numerous occasions in recent decades — including during Tropical Storm Floyd in 1999 and Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 — displacing residents and causing more than $100 million in property damage.

The favored flood mitigation plan is Alternative 4A. In this plan, several days before the peak of a storm, operators of

See LEGISLATION, Page 9