Del. Krupicka Starts 'Protect Huntington from Flooding' Facebook Group
The page raises awareness about the county bond issue.
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Newly elected state Delegate Rob Krupicka (D-45th) isn't wasting anytime helping out his new constituents. He has set up a Facebook page to rally constituents and others to get behind a $30 million bond referendum to protect the Huntington area from flooding.
The page, called "Protect Huntington from Flooding," is raising awareness about the Fairfax County bond issue that would pay for storm drainage improvements. Voters have the option to vote on the bond on Nov. 6.
Here's the description Fairfax County uses to describe the 2012 Stormwater Bond:
"If approved by voters, the $30 million stormwater bond will pay to build a levee and pumping station to protect the Huntington neighborhood from flooding.
During the past 10 years, three floods have damaged homes, vehicles and other property in this neighborhood, and there are 180 homes in the FEMA-designated floodplain that are at risk in the future.
At Fairfax County’s request, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers studied the best ways to protect Huntington from future floods. The study examined a number of options, including dredging Cameron Run, buying the flood-prone properties and flood proofing individual homes. It found that a levee and a pumping station are the most cost-effective way to protect Huntington.
While the levee can prevent flooding of houses from the types of storms that have happened in the past, it is not designed to offer protection from flooding that is caused by storms that are greater than a 100-year event (a storm that may occur once every 100 years)."
The Facebook page currently has 30 Facebook fans.
To read more about the flooding issue, click on the links below:
Lee Hernly
1:21 pm on Thursday, October 18, 2012
Here's a thought - Why not just dredge Cameron Run from Telegraph Road to the Parkway? Sharon Bulova claims it was dredged (which everyone knows is false). IMHO, that would cost taxpayers significantly less than what is proposed.
Steven Larsen
8:19 pm on Thursday, October 18, 2012
Lee, unfortunately a deep water channel was dredged in 1895 and silted up within 5 years. The study looked at the benefit/cost of continual dredgings and it was deemed not economically feasible. The large mud flats at the mouth of Cameron Run south of Porto Veccio encourage sedimentation.
Steven Larsen
1:21 pm on Thursday, October 18, 2012
The Huntington community needs this storm water bond issue to pass to save the community from future flooding exacerbated from development runoff in the Cameron Run watershed. Unfortunately the project did not qualify for Federal Army Corps of Engineering funding and will be paid for through this County sponsored referendum.
A little further down Cameron Run, the New Alexandria & Belle View communities were declared a Federal disaster area after Hurricane Isabelle in 2003. Fairfax County funded an engineering study to determine design options for a flood wall, levee, pumping station that would protect our neighborhood from future floods. With 200+ homes, 980 condos, 3 residential towers and a thriving mall we do qualify for Federal funding to protect our $500,000,000 community. Our project is also in the $20 million range. Our benefit/cost ratio is nearly 3 assuming that the simplest (and most comprehensive) alignment is chosen.
It’s been 9 years since Isabelle. We came within inches of topping our current 1980s levee/flood gate system with the heavy rains September 2011. We need the National Park Service’s approval (since we abut the GWMP) and all the stakeholders within our community to agree on the design option that will get us the needed ACE funding. With passage of this bond referendum the Huntington flooding issue appears solved. Our elected County, State and US representatives now need to turn their attention to our vibrant neighborhood.