Posted on January 10, 2017
By Mike Deak, mycentralJersey.com
The decision by the Army Corps of Engineers not to recommend a flood control project for the borough was “heartless,” state Sen. Kip Bateman (R-District 16) said.
“As a lifelong resident of Somerset County, I have seen far too many homes and small businesses that have been irreversibly damaged by flooding,” Bateman said Thursday. “It is a disgrace that the Army Corps chose to spend $3 million studying flooding in Manville when they could have been building flood walls, dredging the river and developing other solutions to prevent future floods.”
In March 2016, the Army Corps of Engineers announced after a $3 million study, that any flood control project for Manville did not meet the federal government’s standards for cost-effectiveness.
That determination sparked outrage among residents who have weathered severe floods in the borough stuck in the crux of the Millstone and Raritan rivers.
The Army Corps of Engineers said that any flood-control project, from building levees or dredging the rivers, does not meet the federal funding cost-benefit standard of saving $1 in damage for every dollar spent on flood control.
For example, the cost of building a levee system is $66.38 million, according to the Army Corps Of Engineers. That proposal called for the construction of about two miles of levees along the Raritan River, Millstone River and Royce Brook and more than a mile of flood walls. Some of the levees would be 14 feet high. About 810 feet of North Main Street would be raised three to five feet.
That plan would protect not only Manville but the Zarephath section of Franklin.
But according to federal calculations, that has a benefit cost ratio of .39 when a ratio of 1 is needed.
“I am appalled that the Army Corps would use such a flawed and discriminatory methodology for authorizing flood mitigation projects,” Bateman said. “I cannot imagine a more heartless or senseless reason for denying the people of Manville the assistance they desperately need to protect their homes, businesses and their families from the clear and present danger of living in these flood zones. You cannot put a dollar value on people’s lives.”
The state senator said the Army Corps of Engineers should have considered Manville’s lower property values caused by the threat of flooding in the calculation. Bateman said that many residents can not afford the flood insurance bills that are often the same price as their mortgages.
“No one, least of all a government agency that has wasted 10 years and $3 million studying this problem, can deny that Manville is in dire need of comprehensive flood protection,” Bateman said. “By refusing to authorize a sorely needed flood control project, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has made it abundantly clear that people who live in million-dollar homes are more deserving of their help than those who live in middle or working class communities.”
Bateman was one of the primary sponsors signed into law in September by Gov. Chris Christie establishing a task force to address Raritan River and Delaware River flooding in Somerset and Hunterdon counties
Under the law, the Hunterdon-Somerset Flood Advisory Task Force will review past floods from both the Delaware and Raritan rivers and their tributaries and make recommendations for mitigating future flooding.
“I urge all Manville residents to come to me with their ideas and concerns so that we can work together to strengthen and rebuild this great community,” Bateman said.
Source: myCentralJersey.com
