Rutgers Will Help Holmdel on Waackaack Creek Flooding Analysis

HOLMDEL, NJ - Township officials are mulling a proposal by the Rutgers Extension Services Water Services Program to work with the township Environmental Committee to complete a flooding analysis of Waackaack Creek as it winds through Holmdel en route to the ocean.

The idea is to minimize the damage from flooding. According to the proposal by Professor Christopher C. Obropta of the Rutgers Water Resources Program, the cost of the study, to be complete by Dec. 31, will be $12,600: the cost of a graduate student to collect data, the cost of student interns and travel costs. Obropta's other expenses will be covered by Rutgers.

On the initial agenda will be two models that will help collect data to predict stormwater and flooding issues. The first is a hydrologic model using geographic information to simulate rainfall and determine stormwater runoff volumes to the creek. Using Army Corps of Engineering knowledge, the watershed and stormwater volumes will be studied during 2-year, 10-year, 25-year and 100-year storms.

Next will be a development of a hydraulic model of the creek to simulate stormwater runoff in the watershed. Data such as dimensions of the instream and obstructions such as bridges and buildings will be factored in. With such information, experts will be able to simulate stream flow at the bridge crossings, which can result in serious flooding.

The third task is to identify best management practices to alleviate flooding, with possible installations of such best management practices to reduce flooding by managing stormwater runoff volume.

Protecting the creek is considered essential by environmentalists. Waackaack Creek is a long, winding spring-fed tributary of Raritan Bay that provides a home for both freshwater and saltwater plants and a diversity of wildlife including turtles, frogs, fish, and waterfowl, Joe Reynolds of the Bayshore Regional Watershed Council wrote in 2016. The creek starts in the high hills of Middletown near Holland Road, passing by many residential and commercial areas, including several businesses along Highway 35, before flowing through Allocco Park in Holmdel and then winding its way past low meadow lands and residential areas in Hazlet and Keansburg before draining into Raritan Bay and eventually into the Atlantic Ocean.

Rutgers could help Holmdel officials resolve ongoing flooding problems at Waackaack Creek. Photograph by Lindsey Wasson/Associated Press.