Houston searches for solutions to flooding
Courtesy of Harlan Shober
The Pike Street bridge that spans Chartiers Creek in Houston is shown during flooding that occurred after a heavy storm. Houston is one of the communities seeking ways to address flooding along the creek.
Chartiers Run flows under an abandoned railroad trestle that is targeted for removal.
Katie Anderson/Observer-Reporter
A deteriorating bridge over Chartiers Run in Houston
Local officials are hoping to get help with flood prevention in Houston Borough, which has seen more frequent and more damaging floods in recent years.
Houston council President Larry Scears said the borough has had a problem with flooding “forever,” but that it’s gotten much worse in the past two years.
“We’ve had three floods in less than 18 months,” he said.
The last serious incident was Jan. 12, when water flooded several roads, bridges and homes in the borough. Another bad flood in July caused about $255,000 worth of residential property damage and affected about 30 homes, Scears said.
Scears said he suspects the flooding problems have gotten worse due to increased development.
“The waterways just can’t take all the runoff these days,” he said.
The water comes from two main streams – Chartiers Run and Plum Run – which meet in the borough and feed into Chartiers Creek. He said all three waterways need to be dredged.
“Common sense says they need to be wider and deeper,” Scears said. “The biggest problem is the debris in the creek and the streams.”
The borough can’t dredge the creek on its own, Scears said, because the state Department of Environmental Protection will not allow the borough to use machinery in the creek to dig it out.
Washington County Commissioner Harlan Shober, of Chartiers Township, also said the streams likely need to be dredged. He’s a member of American Legion in Houston and said they’ve often dealt with flooding in the last few years.
“I’m going to make that a mission for me,” he said. “Since it’s part of our county, it’s part of my job.”
Shober said he wants to try to have a study done on that area to see what can be done to “alleviate” the flooding. He said one project that will help with the flooding is the state Department of Transportation’s planned improvements to the Pike Street bridge over Chartiers Run.
“That will improve the situation because the water is dammed up somewhat by that bridge,” Shober said.
Scears said the bridge, which is more than 100 years old, is deteriorating, with large cracks in the cement. Large pieces of it have crumbled away. Scears hopes it lasts until 2019, when PennDOT is slated to start working on it.
According to Ray Deep, PennDOT spokesman, the project to “replace or rehabilitate” the bridge is still in a preliminary stage. He said the bridge is expected to be widened, and construction is expected to begin in July 2019. He said there is no cost associated with the project yet and no timeline for when it will be completed.
Just downstream of the bridge is an abandoned railroad trestle that Shober said also blocks water flow during heavy rains and floods. He and Scears said the trestle was purchased by someone in the borough and is private property. They are working to find the owner to try to get the trestle taken down.
“If we can work with the owners to get that trestle out of there, I think that will help,” Shober said. “I think that whole area needs to be looked at, and a study needs to be done because there are other problems causing flooding there. I just think we need to find out what we can do.”
Scears said the borough’s biggest “holdup” to getting a study done and dredging the streams is money.
“We don’t have that kind of money,” he said. “You need a lot of money for that, and people don’t want to hear that you don’t have money.”
He said he spoke with state Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll, to see if anything could be done for the area at the state level. He also hopes for financial help from the county, since Shober has been speaking out about the flooding problem.
“If the county is going to get involved with finding funding for us, that would be great,” he said.