Both the water
company and state Department of Environmental Protection say they will not
lower the Woodcliff Lake reservoir despite flooding concerns from residents and lawmakers.
News 12 reported last
week about flooding in certain towns in Bergen County. It's in response to
growing pressure from residents, mayors and lawmakers, who say increasingly
they are under water not from big storms – but just plain rain.
They say the water
company, Veolia, should lower the reservoir by a few feet.
Veolia says it has to
protect the supply. It blames development in flood plains, poorly managed
rivers and streams.
The state could order
the lowering of the water, but the DEP says forecasting is flawed and
reservoirs are not designed to mitigate floods.
DEP says Gov. Phil Murphy
is focused on other ways to deal with flooding. It sent News 12 a lengthy
statement:
Statement
from NJ Department of Environmental Protection about increasing flooding in
several Bergen County towns.
"While
DEP cannot support reservoir lowering as a flood risk reduction measure, DEP is
committed to helping the communities address flood risk. Some of the Murphy
Administration initiatives available to communities include:
•
Resilient NJ: Local Planning for Climate Change Toolkit, which provides
valuable resources for developing community-specific, science-based strategies
and actions that will protect homes, businesses, critical infrastructure, and
natural resources
•
Clean Stormwater and Flood Reduction Act Guidance, which provides support for
communities that wish to establish stormwater utilities capable of generating
investment necessary to enhance and deploy infrastructure intended to reduce
flood risk and improve water quality.
•
New Jersey Water Bank, a partnership between DEP and the state’s Infrastructure
Bank, which provides low-interest loans for the construction of a variety of
water quality protection measures, including stormwater and nonpoint source
management facilities.
•
Watershed Planning and Restoration Grants, which aid local governments and
other organizations in improving the management and restoration of watersheds
impaired by the non-point source pollution associated with runoff from
development areas that similarly increases flood risk potential.
•
Blue Acres, which facilitates state acquisition of properties that have been
damaged or may be prone damage from flooding or lands that may buffer or
protect other properties from such damage.
Statement
from Veolia spokesperson Debra Vial:
State
regulators do not allow us to release water at will. Rather, we are required to
protect the water supply to ensure there is enough of this precious resource to
serve the more than a million residents who depend on us. Over generations, our
operation of the reservoirs and our safeguarding of the water supply has not
changed. What has changed is the continued development in flood plains, the
increased voracity of storms and snags and other debris hindering flows of
rivers and streams in municipalities.
We
have offered to help municipalities coordinate the clearing of their waterways
and we are sharing information about storms with their emergency management
teams. In neighboring Passaic County and other areas of the state, officials
have turned to Blue Acres funding to buy homeowners out of low-lying areas and
have ended development in flood-prone areas. We understand how these storms
have impacted some homeowners. There are solutions."