Two Wyoming Valley Levee reaches nearing accreditation restoration

The Wyoming Valley Levee overseer is close to restoring accreditation of the Plymouth and Wilkes-Barre/Hanover Township reaches — a step necessary to prevent significant flood insurance rate hikes for property owners protected by both levee stretches, officials said.

Christopher Belleman, executive director of Luzerne County’s Flood Protection Authority, highlighted the development during this week’s authority board meeting.

Insurance increases were proposed because federal analysis had concluded the “freeboard” safety buffer atop both levee stretches was inches below the standard 3 feet for a variety of reasons, including increased runoff to the Susquehanna River from new development, a larger quantity of river sediment and tree growth and more frequent and intense storms attributed to climate change, officials have said.

As a result, both stretches did not 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% chance of occurring or being exceeded in any given year.

In response, the authority board voted in April 2020 to ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to perform a fresh risk assessment using revised evaluation techniques that no longer deem freeboard a major determining factor. The Army Corps released its final report in late January recommending both levee reaches be accredited for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s flood insurance program.

But there was one more hurdle: FEMA had to review the Army Corps recommendation and make the final decision on accreditation, Belleman said.

FEMA has completed its review and had only three minor recommendations, Belleman told the authority board this week.

One was for the authority to update its Wyoming Valley Flood Response Plan to include recent improvements that will speed up flood response, he said. The authority completed a $1.04 million project that permanently eliminated four levee depressions or gaps and converted three openings to sliding gates or stop-log closure structures so they would no longer require scrambling to set up sandbags.

The authority board satisfied this FEMA requirement by approving the revised flood response plan during this week’s meeting.

In the second request, FEMA wanted the levee operating manual revised to incorporate the same closure structure/sandbag elimination improvements, Belleman said.

Finally, FEMA asked the Army Corps for a letter verifying pump stations and other levee components were still operating correctly to collect and handle “interior drainage” on the land side of the levee when the Susquehanna rises too high for this water to naturally drain into the river, he said. The Army Corps already has forwarded that letter to FEMA, he said.

“I’d anticipate on receipt of all three things accreditation will follow,” Belleman said.

Belleman said he is hopeful FEMA will formally issue the accreditations by the end of the year and plans to request a status on the timeline when he submits all required documentation.

FEMA’s response is a positive development and evidence of the thoroughness of the Army Corps analysis, he said.

The Army Corps recommendation, which took two years to plan and execute, did not hinge on the authority completing any modifications to the two levee reaches, Belleman has said.

The authority had jumped into action when the levee reaches lost their accreditation, with Belleman describing the potential rising flood insurance costs for impacted property owners as “catastrophic” and an “economic tsunami.”

Without levee accreditation, property owners protected by both reaches would go from the preferred rates of Zone X to Zone D, which carries an undetermined risk, Belleman said.

FEMA had agreed to put flood insurance changes on hold for the two levee reaches pending completion of the levee reconsideration process.

Belleman had said he was confident accreditation is warranted because the entire levee system is well-maintained and held back the Susquehanna when the river rose to a record 42.66 feet in September 2011.

The remaining Kingston-to-Exeter levee stretch kept its accreditation and still meets the freeboard standard because it’s on higher ground, Belleman said.