West Pittston inching toward goal of constructing a levee | Dallas Post

West Pittston is making some headway advancing its goal to construct a levee along the Susquehanna River.

Luzerne County Community Development Executive Director Catherine Hilsher said Tuesday her office has identified $187,500 that will be used as a required local match for a $562,500 federal flood mitigation grant the borough received for the levee project.

Borough Council President Ellen Quinn said this $750,000 will cover advanced study and levee design.

In addition, the borough has been approved for a $1.5 million federal Pre-Disaster Mitigation, or PDM, grant that will require a 25%, or $500,000 match, officials said.

The borough has committed to come up with that local match and is seeking additional grant funding to offset the borough’s financial obligation, Quinn said.

This $2 million will be used for preliminary engineering and levee design, she said.

“We are absolutely determined to keep this going,” Quinn said. “We need protection, and we deserve protection.”

With the grant funding committed, Quinn said the borough will soon initiate the public search process for an outside entity to handle the preliminary engineering and design.

A new levee is estimated to cost between $50 million and $55 million.

Borough officials started pushing for flood control after the record 2011 Susquehanna flood caused $98 million in damage to 880 borough residences, 26 businesses, four churches and four other public buildings, records show.

The borough is on its own in securing a levee because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers declined to initiate a levee under its umbrella, officials have said. The federal agency determined in 2017 a levee around West Pittston did not meet the benefit-to-cost ratio warranting the investment, officials have said. The process to secure and complete a levee through the U.S. Army Corps also could take decades.

Because a study was needed to launch the project, the county community development office in 2018 awarded $225,000 to the borough to analyze all options.

That county funding came from a $25.4 million U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development allocation to fix lingering damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee in 2011 that was largely used for flood buyouts and to repair flood-damaged infrastructure, officials have said.

Hilsher said Tuesday that a small portion of this disaster recovery funding was still available to provide the new $187,500 match last month as requested by the borough.

Before committing the match, the county office first verified the West Pittston levee was eligible for this funding and that it could be used as the local obligation, Hilsher said.

“I was glad it was eligible,” Hilsher said, noting there are no more leftover funds available to use as a match on the second federal grant.

Unveiled in January 2020, the county-funded feasibility report recommended the borough follow the example of Bloomsburg in Columbia County, which responded to a similar Army Corps rejection by rounding up private and public funding to build a levee there.

The proposed levee in West Pittston would include stretches of both earth and concrete-capped sheet pile, the report said. The levee height would vary to a maximum of 15 feet, it said.

About 60 vacant parcels would have to be acquired on the river side of Susquehanna Avenue to make way for the levee, it said.

The new levee would meet Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requirements to comply with the National Flood Insurance Program to ensure property owners receive reduced flood insurance rates from levee protection, officials have said.

Wilkes-Barre-based Borton-Lawson completed the study, with help from sub-contractor Reilly Associates in Pittston and guidance from borough project management consultant Jim Brozena.

Quinn rattled off a list of elected officials assisting in securing funding, saying she believes they all understand the need for a levee.

“They are with us, and I greatly appreciate it. All our elected officials from the county and state to federal level have been very supportive,” Quinn said.

Because the trauma of 2011 flooding is still fresh in many minds, borough residents brace themselves when the river rises, Quinn said. Citizens regularly seek updates on the levee plans at borough council meetings.

“We are moving ahead in a positive direction, and we hope the momentum keeps going our way and that within a few years we will have a levee,” Quinn said.