Obama Allocates $1 Million to Fund Flooding Study

President Barack Obama has allocated $1 million to help find a permanent solution to flooding in the Passaic River Flood Basin.

The money will be used to help fund the Passaic River Re-evaluation Study. The study is designed to provide state and federal agencies with information to help them select an appropriate plan to mitigate flooding in the Basin and protect the environment.

The president allocated the money in his proposed national 2013 Fiscal Year budget.

Obama promised flood victims in September that the federal government would help them rebuild their homes in the wake Hurricane Irene, which blanketed North Jersey with 10 inches of rain in late August last year. The result was what . Obama and in early September at Congressman Bill Pascrell Jr.’s request.

“I just want to let you know that you know that we’re going to be here,” Obama said to a Fayette Avenue resident during the tour.

Pascrell expressed his gratitude to the president on his decision.

“I am very grateful that President Obama did not forget what he saw when he walked through flood-ravaged areas of Paterson and Wayne last summer,” Pascrell said in a statement.  

Local and state lawmakers have asked the federal government for funds to assist in finding a permanent solution to flooding in the Basin for years.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) requested in early 2009 that the ACE conduct the study. Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez and Pascrell asked the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) in June to help fund the study. They estimate the study will cost $15 million to complete.

The study was to begin in January 2009, but was put on hold for several months while the Passaic County River Flood Advisory Commission studied flooding in the Basin. The Commission released a on how best to alleviate flooding in the Basin, which included conducting the study.

Assemblyman Scott Rumana  late last year urging Obama to help fund the study with federal dollars.

“It’s a problem that’s so massive that needs real attention and needs real money and we have to get our federal officials motivated to bring the money here to solve it,” Rumana said at a press conference in December.