Remediation Work at Water Basin Complete, DOT Will Need to Regularly Maintain Site

Now that the has been completed, it will still need continued maintenance by the Department of Transportation to keep it from becoming an “overgrown mess” once again, Borough Engineer Ken Job reported Tuesday.

Job told the mayor and council that the DOT has cleared out all the vegetation that had been overgrowing at the site and has also installed the low flow channel, which the borough had asked the state to do more than a year ago when officials first foresaw many problems with the site. 

Job said drainage function has improved which the last two recent rainstorms proved. Although the drainage process takes longer now there is no longer debris clogging the drain. 

In the spring, the DOT will plant new vegetation at the site, Job said, and pointed out that maintenance will have to be kept up regularly by the DOT to prevent the vegetation from becoming overgrown once again.

Borough officials had complained to the state repeatedly for more than a year that there was no progress being made towards their requests to remediate and maintain the site. The site, which was originally a traffic island, was converted into an environmental water basin by the DOT almost two years ago.  

Among the many complaints was lack of maintenance and the threat of the borough’s nearby athletic field being flooded if the water basin were to clog and overflow.