Wyoming Valley Levee fee won’t increase in 2022

The Wyoming Valley Levee fee won’t increase next year under a $1.74 million operating budget the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority approved Tuesday.

Implemented in 2009, the fee impacts approximately 14,150 levee-protected properties and is based on the assessed value of structures, officials said. Total annual fee payments range from $63 to $1,213.

The last fee increase was in 2017.

Fee revenue must be used to maintain the 16-mile flood control system along the Susquehanna River.

Several authority board members said Tuesday they have worked with the administration to implement efficiencies and bring in additional revenue to avoid a levee fee increase.

Levee study

Property owners protected by the Plymouth and Wilkes-Barre/Hanover Township levee reaches should soon know more about efforts to avoid flood insurance rate hikes, authority officials said Tuesday.

Insurance increases are possible because federal analysis concluded the safety buffer atop both levee stretches — called a “freeboard” — is now inches below the required 3 feet. The government cited increased storms, development and sediment and tree growth in the Susquehanna as reasons.

As a result, both stretches no longer qualify for accreditation, or federal confidence a levee will provide adequate base flood risk reduction for insurance and building requirements. Commonly known as a “100-year flood,” a base flood has a 1-percent chance of happening or being exceeded in any given year.

The Kingston-to-Exeter levee stretch still meets the freeboard standard because it’s on higher ground, officials said.

At the authority’s request, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is completing a new evaluation of both reaches hoping it will restore accreditation to continue providing preferred insurance rates to properties protected by the levee system. The Army Corps recently revised how it evaluates flood protection systems to no longer deem freeboard a major determining factor, officials have said.

A draft evaluation report from the Army Corps is expected in the first quarter of 2022, authority Executive Director Christopher Belleman said Tuesday.

Belleman said he is optimistic the Army Corps will be able to recommend levee accreditation to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but he cannot provide any assurances to property owners until the draft report is released.

“There’s no written confirmation. Nothing was promised,” Belleman said.

Levee gaps

Four of seven levee gaps have been permanently closed as part of an ongoing project to reduce reliance on sandbags and labor-intensive temporary closures when the Susquehanna rises, Belleman said Tuesday.

The three remaining gaps in Edwardsville, Wilkes-Barre and Exeter can’t be eliminated because they are still needed for access, Belleman said.

A contractor is set to begin work in coming days on the opening on Wilkern Street in Exeter, he said. A sliding gate will be installed there.

The Edwardsville opening and another on the opposite side of the Black Diamond Bridge in Wilkes-Barre must remain passable for still-active Norfolk Southern Railway train traffic. To end the need for sandbags, the project will create a “stop log” system of aluminum beams at both rail openings that can be quickly set up and dismantled by a two-person crew as needed.

Belleman reported an agreement has been reached with Norfolk Southern that will allow that work to proceed once final documents are executed.

The $934,930 project will be primarily covered by a grant the Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded last year.