Study To Look At Ways To Prevent Flooding Of Rahway River Basin
RAHWAY, N.J. (CBSNewYork) - A federally-funded million dollar study will help the Army Corp of Engineers find ways to prevent flooding along an area in North Jersey.
"This is about people and homes and lives and property," Sen. Robert Menendez (D- New Jersey) told 1010 WINS Friday.
The Army Corps will look at the 82-square-mile Rahway River Basin, WCBS 880's Levon Putney reported.
"Where it has created numerous, severe, widespread flooding on numerous occasions in the last decade and caused the displacement of residents and millions of dollars in property damage," Menendez said.
Menendez said the study will focus on two alternative, including how to control the flow of floodwater.
"So that you don't have the water flow downward in these communities during high peaks," he said.
He also said the Army Corps will be looking into whether it's better to raise and/or waterproof some homes or if they should just buy them out in some flood prone areas.
"From the federal government perspective, every time we have flooding throughout these communities, FEMA and flood insurance has to pay out so it makes eminent sense to try to mitigate the flooding in the future so that the costs to all taxpayers will be far less," he said.
The senator is expecting the study to wrap up within the year.