Building a 1.6-mile levee appears to be the way to go, the authors of a draft report on West Pittston flood mitigation told a public meeting Wednesday night, with a price tag of close to $50 million anticipated for the project.
“In a perfect world we’d have the money sitting in the lobby, and design could start tomorrow,” project management consultant Jim Brozena told an audience of more than 100 people gathered in the auditorium of Wyoming Area Secondary Center in Exeter.
“With design, permitting and construction of this project would take about four to five years to completion,” Brozena added, “Obviously, the hard work is to find the funding.”
Using a $225,000 allocation from Luzerne County’s Community Development Office, the borough hired Wilkes-Barre-based Borton-Lawson to study all options, with help from sub-contractor Reilly Associates in Pittston and guidance from Brozena.
Wednesday’s presentation gave residents a chance to hear the major findings from that study, prompted by a desire to prevent a repeat of 2011, when 880 residences, 26 businesses and several churches and public buildings were damaged by record river flooding caused by Tropical Storm Lee in September of that year.
West Pittston is looking at building protection on its own because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers declined to embark on a levee project, determining in 2017 that such an effort not meet the benefit-to-cost ratio warranting the estimated $51 million investment, officials have said, not to mention that the process could take decades.
Authors of the study noted that West Pittston could emulate Bloomsburg, in Columbia County, where officials responded to a similar rejection by the Corps by seeking alternative funding to build a mile-long levee there. Borton-Lawson designed and built that project.
The West Pittston study report, which is not yet officially final, veered away from two other extreme options — doing nothing, or buying out and leveling more than 900 flood-prone structures, which could cost more than $130 million and would displace many residents.
Next steps
In order to formally finalize the report, Brozena said the authors would incorporate community input from Wednesday’s meeting and remarks from the panel’s technical advisory committee before posting it on the borough’s website at www.westpittstonboro.com/2019FloodStudy.
But, as noted, it was clear that building a levee was the expected recommendation, and Brozena explained what is expected to happen next.
“The first thing we’re recommending is the borough create a levee planning committee,” he said. “We’ll be talking to Borough Council to identify members of the community who have various specialties that can help us in putting together a team to identify funding sources.”
As explained Wednesday night, such funding sources could include a wide range of state, federal, local and county programs, including the state Redevelopment Capital Assistance Program and Act 13 Flood Mitigation Program, federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and U.S. Department of Agriculture funds, Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority Mitigation funds, municipal bonds, and potentially partnering with the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority and utility companies.
According to slides presented Wednesday, features of the potential levee would include:
• 6,700 feet (1.3 miles) of earth levee.
• 1,700 feet (0.3 miles) of concrete capped sheet pile wall.
• It would range from 2 to 15 feet in height.
• There would be roadway closure structures at the Fort Jenkins and Water Street bridges and on Susquehanna Avenue at River Shores.
• There would be pump stations at Parke Street, Luzerne Avenue, Delaware Avenue and adjacent to the armory.
• 1.7 miles of sewer would need to be relocated, and 1.5 miles of roadway would need to be reconstructed as a result.
• On the river side of Susquehanna Avenue about 60 vacant parcels would need to be acquired.
The $49,941,000 price tag would be for a levee that protects against Tropical Storm Lee river levels plus three feet. In that storm, the Susquehanna River reached 42.6 feet at Wilkes-Barre. Areas protected by the levee system in central Luzerne County were spared; West Pittston was among those unprotected areas that suffered greatly.
Anyone with questions or comments on the draft study can email leveestudy.westpittstonboro@comcast.net.
