Raritan River - Flooding

Flooding

The Raritan River has persistent flooding problems when excessive rain from storms affects the river basin. The flooding problems mainly affect the town of Bound Brook, which is partially built on a natural flood plain at the junction of several tributaries, and Manville, which has a large neighborhood known as Lost Valley that lies on the flood plain between the Raritan River and its largest tributary river, which is known as the Millstone River. Other towns in the Raritan River basin also experience flooding to a lesser degree.

Record flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Floyd in September 1999 (42.13 ft (13.1 m) flood crest, 14 ft (4.6 m) above flood stage) caused renewed interest in a flood control project called the Green Brook Flood Control Project, which will essentially protect Bound Brook from a 150 year flood. Two levees have been built on the perimeter of Bound Brook, but the main levee necessary to keep the Raritan River from flooding the town has not been built as of early 2007 and is not scheduled to be completed for at least another five years.