Flood plan for Passaic

Last year's flooding in NJ has sparked a new plan.  The Passaic River Flood Advisory Commission has released a 15 point plan for addressing flooding like we saw last year:

• Expanding and expediting floodway buyouts, with state Blue Acres funds and federal FEMA funds.
• Encouraging home elevation projects in flood prone areas if acquisition is not an option.
• Buying undeveloped land for use as flood storage areas.
• Improving operation of the Pompton Lakes dam floodgates.
• Initiating de-snagging and shoal dredging efforts to facilitate improved river flows.
• Removing feeder dams to offer flood relief to Pompton Lakes, Wayne and Pequannock.
• State adoption of National Flood Insurance Program regulations to ensure state rules are consistent with local flood control ordinances, and eliminating
• the risk that FEMA could suspend its flood insurance program in New Jersey.
• Expediting the DEP's permit process to let towns more quickly obtain permits to de-snag and remove river debris, repair retaining walls and remove shoals.
• Improving effectiveness and efficiency of county and local emergency response plans.
• Enhancing the Passaic River flood warning system.
• Contracting with the National Weather Service to create inundation maps to provide critical information to enable quicker flood projections and greater storm preparedness.
• Enhancing public involvement, information and outreach on flood issues.
• Requesting a re-evaluation by the Army Corps of Engineers of the larger potential major engineering projects for long-term flood damage reduction.
• Updating floodplain mapping to eliminate decades-old maps that do not include detailed modeling of floodplains.
• Having towns in the river basin pursue flood risk reduction changes to their master plans, zoning ordinances and flood prevention ordinances, to guide future development away from floodplains or prevent future development in these high risk flood-prone areas.

Not everyone is impressed by the plann. The Record quotes the leader of one the environmental groups in the area as saying, "These are stop-gap, Band-Aid measures that will accomplish more harm than good, proposed by people with little understanding of how rivers work." And a town manager is interviewed about his desire to dig a big flood tunnel to release the waters.

You can relive the predictions, read about a store closed by the storms, or watch the flooding as photos or video or video of photos.   What will March bring this year?