Thursday, March 21, 2013
An attorney for the Hillsdale & Westwood Flood Solution Group said more changes need to be made to minimize flooding.
Westwood officials still want the Department of Environmental Protection to order an operations change at the Woodcliff Lake Reservoir as was recommended in a 2011 report, Mayor John Birkner said this week. Members of the Hillsdale & Westwood Flood Solution Group said the change alone would not be enough. United Water, which owns the reservoir, keeps the water level slightly higher in the summer than in the winter. A 2011 report prepared for Westwood by Boswell Engineering recommended changing operations at the reservoir to maintain the lower level all year. Water which leaves the reservoir flows into the Pascack Brook, which flooded some homes five times in 2011. Birkner said the change could "mitigate a certain degree of flooding." …
Thursday, March 7, 2013
The Hillsdale & Westwood Flood Solution Group's attorney said some flooding along the Pascack Brook can be stopped.
The Hillsdale & Westwood Flood Solution Group, an organization of residents affected or concerned by flooding, offered to work more closely with the Hillsdale government during a borough council meeting Tuesday night. Donald MacLachlan, an attorney representing the group, said that the council should form a committee tasked with advising the governing body on resolving the flooding problem along the Pascack Brook. MacLachlan said the committee could help with formulating a plan and also finding funding for any projects needed for the plan. The state government is currently "highly sensitive" to flooding issues, he said. The upcoming United Water project to upgrade the dam at the Woodcliff Lake Reservoir is one focus of the group, but not …
Monday, February 25, 2013
United Water sued Hillsdale to void a pair of land use laws the borough passed last year.
A lawsuit filed by United Water against Hillsdale stands as the next step in the legal battle over a proposed project to upgrade the Woodcliff Lake Reservoir dam. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is requiring United Water to approximately double the rate at which water can flow out of the reservoir. The DEP approved a plan submitted by United Water in 2011. Hillsdale has asserted that its Planning Board should review United Water's plans because of concerns that the project could worsen flooding along the Pascack Brook downstream from the reservoir. The borough passed two ordinances last year which create additional borough oversight for tree removal and utility projects in order to "protect the public health, safety …
Friday, February 22, 2013
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities declined to decide if they have jurisdiction over the proposed Woodcliff Lake Dam upgrade project, which some say could affect flooding in Hillsdale and Westwood.
A state board decided Wednesday that it does not have the authority to make a decision requested by United Water on the utility's proposed dam upgrade project for the Woodcliff Lake Reservoir. United Water filed a petition with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) last year asking the board to find that their plan for the dam — which would approximately double the rate at which water can flow into the Pascack Brook — is "reasonably necessary;" and that local land use ordinances have no authority over the plan. Hillsdale officials have argued that the plan should be heard by the borough Planning Board because it could affect flooding in the brook. The BPU dismissed the petition without prejudice this week, declining to rule that …
Township
10:07 am on Friday, March 1, 2013
To say simply 'Read up on earthen dams' is a poor blanket statement. Every earthen dam is different as is the individual communities they are located in. As such each and every earthen dam needs to be studied in great depth in relation to local conditions. This isn't simply flood waters: the Woodcliff Lake Resevoir now floods so quickly and with such force there is virtually no warning. A house … more ›