HILLSDSALE—The borough decided on March 16 to wait and see results from neighboring Westwood’s anticipated drone study of Pascack Brook waterways before deciding whether to fund a similar study in hopes of mitigating flooding.
However, Westwood’s council has not yet approved its proposed drone study, said officials.
Meanwhile, Veolia North America said it was trying to arrange a meeting with the Pascack Valley Mayors Association to discuss the proposed drone study.
Veolia spokesperson Debra Vial told us on March 20, “We immediately contacted the group when [we] received the letter in January. At that time, [Westwood] Mayor [Ray] Arroyo told us that he would set up a meeting in a few weeks. Our contact spoke to him again this week. If the group does not set up a meeting by the end of the week, we will take the initiative to do so.”
Flooding has been a problem in most Pascack Valley towns, more so recently as frequent storms — some severe with brief intense rainfalls — have led to property damage in Emerson, Hillsdale, Park Ridge, Township of Washington, and Westwood.
Arroyo has said frequent “no-name” storms have done increasing damage to local properties and he has strongly advocated for a regional approach to flood management.
Hillsdale mayor John Ruocco said March 16 that the governing body’s “consensus” was to wait until Westwood does a study, see the results, and go from there. He said no funding would be put aside in the upcoming budget and that the cost for a drone study was approximately $27,000.
Hillsdale business administrator Michael Ghassali — who also is Montvale’s mayor — said the cost would likely be higher in Hillsdale and that the drone study “would document the flood areas.”
However, he said, without basin-wide involvement in flood mitigation, including towns in Rockland County, New York, “the work that you do here is going to be very limited and it will not solve the whole problem.”
So far, Westwood has not approved a drone study although the mayor and council had discussed it at an early March meeting. It was not listed as a discussion item or resolution on the March 21 council agenda. Pascack Press requested a copy of Boswell Engineering’s proposed drone study of Westwood streams but did not hear back by press time.
Ruocco said besides Westwood, and possibly the Township of Washington, the other seven Pascack Valley towns had not expressed interest in a drone study. Those towns included Emerson, Montvale, Park Ridge, River Vale, Woodcliff Lake, Oradell and Old Tappan.
The drone study of Pascack Brook streams and tributaries was suggested by the Pascack Valley Mayors Association in a January 2023 letter to Veolia North America.
The three part-study included drone mapping of the Pascack Brook watershed; hiring a grant writer to seek federal and state funding for flood reduction actions; and implementation of a multi-year project for basin-wide flood mitigation measures.
The PVMA said, “All parties involved in the ongoing issue of fluvial flooding – from our federal and state representatives, our county and local elected officials, DEP regulators and Veolia, to the thousands of residents and business owners adversely impacted on a regular basis – know that the piecemeal approach to a basin-wide flooding problem can only have limited, local effects bringing fleeting, short-lived relief, while simply moving the problem downstream to areas left unaddressed.”
It said it proposes “a unified plan of action and would like to enlist Veolia’s support to fund the costs of the Phase I Drone Study. Please advise if Veolia is willing to partner in a more effective, joint effort to mitigate a deteriorating, regional situation.”
While the letter was received by Veolia who called it “a good concept,” Ruocco said that the utility had not responded to PVMA on helping to fund a multi-town study.
When we contacted Veolia in late January regarding the PVMA outreach, Veolia sent a statement from Kevin O’Connor, vice president, external affairs: “I reached out to Terry Maguire (PVMA’s executive director) because we’d like to meet soon. It’s a good concept and we want to know more. We spoke to the municipalities in late 2021 and again in 2022 about the need to clear the banks of the Pascack Brook and the obstructions in the waterways as we do on our property. We’re pleased they want to take action.”
Hillsdale councilman Justin Fox said that at a prior meeting with Veolia, the water utility said they would follow their reservoir guidelines for keeping the Woodcliff Lake Reservoir at 95 feet above sea level during the summer and at 91.5 feet above sea level in winter.
Legislation had been introduced to require reservoir managers statewide to conserve water for both potable water use and to lower water levels to reduce potential downstream flooding. The legislation is opposed by NJDEP and has not moved out of committee.
Fox said the utility said towns were “on our own” to deal with flooding related to rains and reservoir releases.
Ruocco said the state Department of Environmental Protection previously said it will not interfere with how the utility manages its reservoirs. He said the utility’s role as seen by NJDEP was to conserve water, not mitigate flooding.
“They’re not flooding us is the official Trenton-endorsed line,” said Ruocco.
In addition to Westwood considering a drone study, Hillsdale officials said it was likely Washington Township might be considering funding a study. We could not confirm this by press time.
Hillsdale councilman Zoltán Horváth noted what one town does to improve water flow is likely to affect another town, and that if three towns such as Westwood, Hillsdale and Washington Township did this alone, it “would be like spinning our wheels and throwing our money away.”
Several officials pointed out that without watershed-wide “buy-in” from towns in Rockland County, New York, as well as throughout Pascack Valley, implementing flood-mitigation measures might only move the problem downstream if storm runoff is not reduced, detained and controlled.
Ruocco said if a drone study was done, engineers might be able to better identify where the brook bends or a rock wall exists, and help determine if dredging, widening and clearing would help reduce local flooding.
Attorney Mark Madaio said the borough would still need NJDEP permits to do such work.
If a drone study were executed, a Boswell engineer would write up recommendations to improve stream flow conditions. These recommendations would likely require grant funding to implement in future years, officials said.