Council: Flood Meeting 'Good Start' To Solving Passaic River Problem

to address the flooding issue along the Passaic River. On Tuesday night, Berkeley Heights Council members said the dialogue was a good start to a long process to fix the problem, which will likely fall on the shoulders of the council.

The meeting, sponsored by the Berkeley Heights Environmental Commission, showed that there is a serious problem that must be addressed, as the river has only worsened in the last six months, and it’s apparent that people don’t just want something done, but they also need something done, said Councilman Edward Delia.

“I don’t want to say it was a hostile crowd, but I liked it. We didn’t get great answers from the [five panelists]. They kept dancing around the issue of who is responsible for clearing the streams and rivers, and it looks like it boils down to mostly it’s the [responsibility of the] township,” Delia said. “But we do need [Union] County’s help and I don’t want to be critical of the county, but the county does not seem like they are that receptive on it, but Morris County is. I know we have to address it and really start pushing on it because it is a major issue that is getting worse by the day.”

Mayor Joseph Bruno said this was the first time officials from the State were here to address a problem that was 20 years in the making.

“They didn’t have any definite, concrete answers of when we can fix it or how we’re going to fix it. Again, everybody points a finger at somebody … it basically comes down to money, but it has to be fixed because of the money homeowners are spending in redoing their houses every year, year and a half. I mean, the statement about the “hundred year flood” [that was made at the meeting on Monday is] almost ridiculous because we’ve had three hundred year floods in the last 5 years.”

Bruno said he was copied on a number of emails from residents to Cindy Randazzo, Executive Director for Local Government Assistance with NJDEP and one of the panelists at the meeting, and she answered each and every one. 

“It was a little heated at times [Monday] night,” Bruno said. “I think they got the message that people are upset about it and we’ll keep pursuing it. But there’s nothing like a good letter writing campaign to the state to get people’s attention so I would really encourage everyone to pick up a pen and start writing Cindy Randazzo.”

Bruno also agreed with Delia that it is a township problem and it all boils down to who owns the property where the streams are. 

“There’s a lot of people saying, ‘well, it’s not [my responsibility], it’s yours,’” Bruno explained. “We just got to get everybody together and say, ‘okay, let’s just say we’re both going to commit funds.’ I think as a council we need to starting looking at dedicating some funds on a yearly basis to do something every year because it’s not going to be done in one year. But if next year we’re still saying we need to dedicate funds, we’re going to be a year behind. We need to get the county involved because they have the big equipment to do it.”

Council President Kevin Hall said he thinks the meeting on Monday night was well attended and a lively discussed ensued, where it became apparent that this isn’t just an issue for Berkeley Heights, but instead a “regional issue.”

He said he thinks there’s three take away points from the discussion:

1. This is a real, important issue and a major priority for Berkeley Heights, which everyone at the meeting – panelists and audience members – realized.
2. Everyone realized the complexity of this issue, including regulatory issues, ownership issues, property rights issues and budget issues – all of which make up a formula to find a solution to this problem.
3. It raised awareness and started a dialogue. The intention of the Berkeley Heights Environmental Commission, which sponsored this meeting, was not to solve the issue but instead to start a dialogue about how to solve it.

Hall said while he echoes Bruno’s call for residents to send letters to the State, the onus is on council members to take on the challenge and “come up with a coherent, cohesive action plan that really addresses the needs of the town. When push comes to shove, I think the requirement is going to be on Berkeley Heights to formulate an action plan and finance that action plan. The DEP will work with us to make it more efficient and maybe less expensive… and I think the county is the county. I think we need to sort of take it upon ourselves to deal with the issues here.”

Delia said the best thing Berkeley Heights could have done was speak up about the issues, otherwise other towns in the state that are still experiencing damages from flooding would get all the funding available and all of the attention. He said the Berkeley Heights area never really had any attention and now, the Passaic River flooding problem has only grown worse in the last six month to the point where something must be done immediately.

He said he’s been pushing and trying to get people to hear him about the river issues and come see the river. He’s also willing to take anyone on a walk along the river who would like to get a closer look at the damage.

Delia agreed that the big issue now is for towns to work together and for Morris and Union Counties to work together. The reason, he explained, is because a tree could be lying across the river and taken out by Union County. But if there’s a huge pile of mud and sediment from that tree on the Morris County side, that is their responsibility. Therefore, there needs to be a mutual agreement to work together, side by side, to fix the issue.

Councilman Thomas Pirone said it was a good thing that the Passaic River Coalition already mapped out more than 130 snags along the river last year, which was discussed at the Stream Protection meeting, so at least they know where some of them are.

While last night was a good start, Bruno said much more needs to be done.