Hank Silverberg, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – Voters in Fairfax County will have to decide Nov. 6 whether they are willing to spend money to protect one neighborhood from repeated flooding.
The Huntington neighborhood, near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, has flooded three times in the last 10 years, damaging cars and homes.
More than 180 homes are at risk in what the Federal Emergency Management Agency has now designated a floodplain.
Randy Bartlett, deputy director of Public Works and Environmental Services in Fairfax County, says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which did a study on the flooding, has recommended a levee and pumping station as the most cost effective way to protect those homes.
“It will take probably about five years to get it designed and get it into construction,” Bartlett says.
The project will cost $30 million. Voters are being asked to approve a Stormwater Bond on the Nov. 6 ballot.
This is the second time such a bond referendum has been suggested. A similar effort failed to even get on the ballot after the 2006 flooding.
Flooding damaged homes when the Cameron Run overflowed in 2003, 2006 and 2011.
Related Stories:
- Moran: Flood cleanup effort ‘unacceptable’ in Fairfax Co. – Sept. 13, 2011
- Sunshine breaks through after tropical deluge – Sept. 10, 2011
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