Posted on April 16, 2018
By Katie Anderson, Observer-Reporter
One month after officials from across Washington County met at Washington City Hall for a flood summit, the organizer, county Commissioner Harlan Shober, is hopeful something can be done to mitigate future flooding in the Chartiers Creek watershed.
The March 6 summit brought together at least 10 municipalities whose residents, near and surrounding Chartiers Creek and its tributary streams, have been dealing with extensive flooding during heavy rains since July. Those municipalities submitted information on problem areas for flooding to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to “see if they can help us with a design or study on Chartiers Creek.”
“Nobody’s agreed to anything yet and there’s no real commitment on that,” Shober said. “But the Corps of Engineers will come back with what they think they can do to help.”
Jeff Hawk, spokesman for the Corps of Engineers, confirmed they have started to receive that information from the municipalities and the engineers will need time to review it.
“There are concerns that need to be addressed,” he said. “We really have to understand those concerns before we can determine how we can get involved at the federal level.”
Hawk said the Corps of Engineers, along with state Department of Environmental Protection and the municipalities involved, are “all focused on looking at the resources available and how we can reduce the risk to the people in that area.”
Shober said he also plans to reach out to elected state officials to see what type of funding or grants may be available for any potential flood mitigation projects.
“The money’s not just sitting out there, so we have to figure out how we can do this,” he said. “We need to find out how to attack this.”
The municipalities each selected a representative to sit on a flood task force, which will meet regularly with a state Department of Environmental Protection representative to see what can be done at the local level. Shober said they will discuss things like removing trees and debris from streams and cleaning out pipes under roads and bridges.
“I think this would give us a good format for what we can do moving forward,” he said. “Once we get an idea for how we can address the issues with the Chartiers watershed, then we can reach out to other communities with similar stream issues.”
Shober said he hopes the task force will be ready to have its first meeting by the end of the month.
“It’s progress,” he said. “It’s not an overnight thing, but we plan to keep moving on it.”
Source: Observer-Reporter
