Supervisor Jamison Outlines Ways to Prevent Flooding

[JoeP]

The following article appeared in the Scranton Times on 10/8/84 and outlined Mr. Jamison ideas to prevent flooding.  There are some in Newton who might say, after several serious flooding events in the last 2 years, we are closing the barn doors after the horses got out.
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Abington COG Brainstorms on Flood Prevention  
BY MEGAN DISKIN THE SCRANTON TIMES  10/08/2004

CLARKS GREEN -- Council of Governments President Lee Jamison said he knows the Abington waterways so well because he used to play in them as a child.

Now, he said he wants to put that knowledge to good use -- in an effort to prevent severe local flooding.

"I think it's unacceptable to sit here and wait for the next storm to clobber us. Nothing is easier to do than nothing," he said.

At Thursday night's COG meeting, community members like Mr. Jamison brainstormed about ways to prevent flooding.

In short, he wants local, state and federal officials to take a closer look at the capacity of wetlands to handle stormwater.

What he suggested to the panel is building small earthen dams over a series of ponds, streams and tributaries, which would function similar to a detention pond in a development. Such dams would serve as stormwater-control devices that would be constructed gradually over a number of years, he said.

"The water would then be released in a controlled manner over time," he said, adding that the proper engineering take place to ensure a timely flow. "It would be a relatively simple matter to do."

Mr. Jamison said he consulted the Department of Environmental Protection, who said such a proposal has been looked into and determined not to be feasible.

"This has got to be a regional and local solution," said Joyce Hatala, the Director of the Environmental Institute at Lackawanna College. "This has to come from the bottom up rather than the top down."

Ms. Hatala, the former county recycling director, said she has scheduled a Nov. 10 meeting so local officials can discuss possible flooding solutions with those from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Lackawanna River Corridor Association.

Mary Felley, executive director of the Countryside Conservancy, said potential obstacles to Mr. Jamison's proposal include liability and maintenance issues. However, she sees the potential for a small-scale 'pilot program' to assess its feasibility on a larger scale.
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