Zimmer announces flood-mitigation strategy

By Steve Spinello | FBW | June 5, 2013

Looking to address its persistent flooding problems, the City of Hoboken is considering a multi-faceted approach that will incorporate both new and old flood mitigation strategies. On May 15, in a press conference held at City Hall Mayor Zimmer announced several ways in which the city will prepare itself for future flood events. Citing the increasing frequency of extreme weather, Zimmer suggested that the risk of major flooding will likely increase with climate change.

One of the major components of the City’s plan is the installation of a “wet weather flood pump” which the mayor said should help alleviate the flooding in the western portion of the city. To pay for the pump, the city will apply for a $9 million low-interest loan from the New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust. The pump will have a pumping capacity of 50 million gallons per day. The mayor cautioned that results will not be immediate, saying “this is going to take time, and that of lot of needs will be unmet because of limited funding.”

The City is essentially pursuing a two-pronged strategy with the installation of additional stormwater pumps and the use of “green technologies” to mitigate flooding. In her remarks, Mayor Zimmer noted that the city has submitted grant applications for Hazard Mitigation funds to acquire land for three parks in the western portion of Hoboken. The city will study the potential for converting these parks into water detention systems for stormwater runoff, an idea that was also suggested by FBW.

This is going to take time, and the reality is that a lot of needs will be unmet because of limited funding.

An important development has to do with Hoboken’s status under FEMA’s flood insurance rate maps. According to the administration, Hoboken has submitted its flood protection plan—specifically the installation of flood barriers, berms, and gates at the north and south of the city— to the Army Corps of Engineers. If the plan is approved and the City is designated as a “Shaded X” area, property owners in this area will no longer be required to purchase flood insurance. The Shaded X area is an area defined as having a 0.2% probability of flooding every year, also known as the 500-year floodplain.

Missing from the mayor’s plan was any mention of upgrading the City’s Victorian-era sewer system to better serve the increasing demands of a 21st century urban environment. Currently, Hoboken relies on a combined sewer system to manage the outflow of residential and commercial waste. A major pitfall of this kind of system is that in the event of a large rainfall, the system overflows as stormwater runoff competes with sewage for pipe space.

Photo Credit: TheBoken

While these proposals are ambitious in scope and consider a wide variety of ideas, there remains a considerable degree of uncertainty over implementation and ultimately how quickly these measures will be put to practice. A lack of available funding, as made evident by the City’s pursuit of a loan, could prevent Hoboken from implementing the larger items, in particular hard infrastructure like the stormwater pump and flood-defense barriers, included within Zimmer’s announcement.

A place where the city might find a capable lender is the private sector. Hoboken was recently selected as one of eight cities for a new initiative from the Rockefeller Foundation that will promote the development of sustainable stormwater infrastructure systems. The RE.invest initiative is a collaborative effort among private investors, the private sector, and public municipalities that will provide cities with professional and technical expertise. This alternative finance model, also known as a Community Investment Vehicle (CIVic), is designed to leverage private dollars for local public infrastructure. An important part of this process will include public input, especially as it pertains to public works projects.

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