(Editor’s note: This is the last article in a series of three to discuss the 2004 flood, six months later.)
Six months after the flood of Sept. 17 and 18, 2004, Tyrone Borough has continued to face criticisms about how it handled the flood and what could have been done prior to it and in the future to minimize the effects of an overflowing Little Juniata River.
An article in yesterday’s Daily Herald detailed money the borough is seeking through the Federal Emergency Management Agency for its emergency efforts during the flood, as well as cleanup of the Little Juniata River and the Schell Run Basin. The borough is also seeking funding to repair damage to two baseball fields which it owns but leases to other entities.
Residents, particularly those on hard-hit Park Avenue, have questioned what the borough could have done leading up to the flood and what it could do now to prevent another one.
Shortly after the flood, the issue was addressed at an October council meeting, Blair County’s emergency manager Rod Bohner addressed the public and Mayor Patricia Stoner asked borough department heads to discuss the issue.
Tyrone Borough Sewer Department head Tim Nulton said at the time, “We did everything we possibly could do. When you have that much water coming in, there is nothing you can do.”
Stoner concurred with those sentiments during a recent borough council meeting when she responded to criticisms leveled by council candidate Dan Meckes.
In a release announcing his candidacy, Meckes said the September 2004 flood “forced my decision” to run for council. Meckes is a Park Avenue resident, former councilman and former editor of The Daily Herald. He said his first priority if elected to council would be “to hammer and keep hammering” until a flood control project is completed.
In her response, Mayor Stoner cited a FEMA insurance study regarding the floodplain. Stoner said work on the FEMA insurance study was begun in the 1970s and completed more than 20 years ago.
She said she has worked with the Corps of Engineers, the National Guard and the Blair County Conservation Corps and DEP on the flood issues.
The borough’s research also turned up a definite project report conducted by the United States Army Corps of Engineers regarding the river and flood control dating back to the mid 1940s.
Stoner noted a referendum was put on the ballot in the 1970s and it was the voters who decided not to go with the flood control project for the Little Juniata and Bald Eagle Creek.
The mayor said, “I don’t like giving the impression that we have done nothing. I’ve worked with those people and they told me there was absolutely nothing we could have done about that flood. There was nothing we could have done beforehand or after to stop that flood. We did everything right, we (received) commendations from emergency management people that we have done what we should have been doing.”
The mayor reiterated her position that the borough has done everything it could possibly do regarding flooding during a phone interview with The Daily Herald earlier this week.
The area below the Ninth Street bridge has been cleaned up since the flood in an effort to remove a stone buildup and debris and cleanup was done at the Schell Run catch basin.
“They did a beautiful job of cleaning it (below the Ninth Street Bridge),” said Stoner. “They took all the foliage down to the root, they have to leave the foliage in the ground (because of erosion concerns).”
The project required Department of Environmental Protection approval and the mayor had inquired about widening the channel. DEP said it could not be done because the course of the river cannot be changed.
Interim Borough manager Sharon Dannaway researched the information on the flood control project and explained two parts of the plan were eventually completed in the mid 1970s. Those sections were Sink Run and Schell Run.
However, the plan also included the Little Juniata River and Bald Eagle Creek. Those portions were never completed although research shows the project was due to be advertised for bid in March of 1977 and completed by March of 1979.
Dannaway said had the river been done, the cost was estimated at two-and-a-half million dollars.
Mayor Stoner explained the council in place in the mid-1970s could have made a decision to complete the project but instead decided to put a referendum about the project on an election ballot.
“The borough of Tyrone (the residents) voted it down,” said the mayor.
Tyrone Borough made available a portion of the study conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers which detailed some of the alternatives to the original proposed flood control project.
Those methods included the construction of upstream impounding dams. However the study noted a scarcity of suitable dam sites to achieve the same degree of protection provided by the proposed project.
Dredging was also mentioned as an alternative in the study. After a recent council meeting, Mayor Stoner noted that as far back as the mid 1970s, experts detailed reasons why dredging was not a viable method of flood control.
The study noted the frequency of maintenance dredging would be higher than proposed levees, walls and/or dams. Also, the cost would come out of local municipalities’ pockets. The study also noted excavating would seriously disrupt the ecology of the river and was not considered to be a viable alternative “because of the preponderance of negative over positive impacts.”
The study also brought up the initiation of floodplain management which would involve the wisest use of lands lying in the floodplain. The study said floodproofing and some relocation would be required. It noted existing buildings could be raised or placed on higher grounds to avoid damage from flooding. The study said, “Proper zoning ordinances would prohibit new construction within the floodplain, thereby eliminating the source of financial loss.”
The study advised that for any future land use development in Tyrone, flood plain management should be maximized.
The study also said alternative highway and channel routes were studied and PennDOT and the Corps of Engineers determined the flood project proposal the Corps recommended was more feasible both for economics and engineering.
The proposed project was a mutli-agency undertaking involving the Corps, PennDOT and the Tyrone Sewer Authority.
As previously mentioned, work was done on Sink Run and Schell Run but the parts of the plan involving the river and Bald Eagle Creek were never implemented.
The project called for channel modifications to the Little Juniata River consisting of 4,500 lineal feet of levees and walls along both banks, a drop structure with a fish ladder, a low flow meandering fish channel, protection of bridge and abutments, structures on tributaries and an interior drainage system. The project also called for Bald Eagle Creek to have channel modifications consisting of a new levee and wall on the west bank from the then-Westvaco Plant to the river, a new overflow dam, a concrete flume, stilling basin and interior drainage facilities.
The project proposed the relocation of Route 453 which would have created the need for a new river channel and filling in of the existing channel to accommodate the road’s relocation.
However, PennDOT District Nine’s Bob Cassarly said to the best of his knowledge the relocation was not done and the river channel work wasn’t done since the road relocation did not happen.
The recommended Corp of Engineers’ proposal also called for the channel to extend through the then-existing sewage treatment facility and required the completion of a new regional plant before the channel was created. Cassarly said PennDOT did purchase the ground where the treatment plant was located but the channel work there also was not completed.
Cassarly said other work may have been completed on Route 453 due to the construction of Interstate 99 through Tyrone.
The information the borough provided was from a draft supplemental environmental statement from the US Army Corp of Engineers dating back to the 1970s.
(Editor’s note: More flood coverage on page A8.)
