Residents along the Saddle River in Bergen County New Jersey have sustained increasingly more frequent major, minor and local flooding events since Hurricane Floyd 25 years ago and are at a 40% risk of having another Irene or Ida flood-like event within the next 15 years.

The human and economic costs of flooding to our Communities are astronomical.  The Army Corp of Engineers completed evaluations after Hurricane Floyd (September 1999) and identified a mitigation project that had a highly favorable cost-benefit ratio of 1.6:1. So, why hasn’t anything been done yet?

While flooding along the Saddle River occurred prior to Hurricane Floyd in 1999, the frequency and intensity of storms have been magnified dramatically by urban development continues to threaten our Communities.  Hurricane Irene in 2011 was devastating and was only second to Hurricane Sandy as the costliest natural disaster in the history of New Jersey with economic losses to businesses of up to $30 Billion.  And the area was hit hard again by Hurricane Ida in 2021 and most recently by 2 major storms in December 2023 and January 2024.  The Bergen County residents deserve better and should not have to lose sleep every time we hear a storm is headed our way!

We appreciate that Congressman Pascrell testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee in January seeking federal resources to address flooding issues in NJ. The Lower Saddle River Flood Protection Project was authorized in 1986 to study flooding issues along the Saddle River and Sprout Brook. The NJDEP must assess any possible contamination ASAP so the Army Corp of Engineers could provide remediation prior to performing critical flood mitigation. It’s time to secure Federal and State funding and to mobilize the Army Corp of Engineers and NJ Department of Environmental Protection to act now!