Imperfect storm

No strangers to stormwater issues, beleaguered Middlesex homeowners await the federal government’s completion of a flood wall and other mitigation steps. Meanwhile, town officials have unsuccessfully lobbied the feds to correct an erosion problem threatening two Heather Lane homes.

Neighboring Bound Brook has also endured the ravages of large-scale storms. There, however, a group of nearly 20 business and home owners has filed a class action lawsuit, claiming Somerset County and NJ Transit were derelict in their failure to close a flood gate in a timely manner during Hurricane Ida on Sept. 1, 2021. The suit was filed in state Superior Court in Somerville.

There does not figure to be a legal resolution any time soon. The flood gate snafu is an issue in the Nov. 7 general election. After decades of Republican dominance, Democrats have grabbed control of the Somerset County Board of Commissioners in recent years.

This year’s GOP challengers claim the flood gate mishap demonstrates Democratically controlled county government’s incompetence.

The original suit was filed last February. It was later amended in September. The plaintiffs requested all communications between NJ Transit and Somerset County officials regarding closure of the Segment 2 Gate, that crosses railroad tracks in Bound Brook.

Material turned over to the plaintiffs included a phone call from a county Department of Public Works official to the NJ Transit Police Office of Emergency Management. In the call, the DPW official states there are no plans to close the railroad gate, although two others in Bound Brook would be shut.

The DPW official also states that he is unaware of the water threshold that would prompt the railroad gate’s closing. The litigation claims written procedures stating when that gate should be closed were not followed during Ida. That failure led to surging floodwaters in the southwest corner of Bound Brook in the area of Talmage Avenue, damaging property and commerce, the suit alleges.

The class action lawsuit filed by a group of Bound Brook property owners includes an aerial photo from September 2021. It shows the damage that ensued after a flood gate across the railroad tracks in that municipality could not be closed.

In a media interview several days after Ida, a NJ Transit spokesperson said that a Raritan Valley Line train became surrounded by flash flooding and debris in Bound Brook at about 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 1, 2021. Officials then requested that the transit agency allow the gates to close.

The train, however, could not move due to flooding and accumulated debris. NJ Transit was forced to let the floodwaters recede before clearing debris, inspecting the track and sending equipment to tow the disabled train. The stranded train blocked complete closing of the gate during Ida’s worst flooding.

The lawsuit states that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which designed the floodgates, “failed to consider the kind of gross incompetence that causes a train to get stuck between floodgates.”

The suit also alleges that “NJ Transit knowingly and recklessly operated Train 5451 into an active flood zone.”

The county and NJ Transit “recklessly left” the gate open ahead of and during flooding, the suit claims.

Somerset County and NJ Transit officials have declined to comment to media outlets on the suit, because it is pending litigation.

Then-Bound Brook Mayor Bob Fazen pulled no punches in an interview shortly after Ida. Fazen, a Republican, fingered the railroad flood gate for the Ida damage in a section of his town.

“The western end of Bound Brook would probably not have flooded without this happening,” said Fazen, in September 2021. “The county closed the gate as far as it would go.”

Donald Lemma and Daniel Gallic, the 2023 Republican Somerset County Commissioner candidates, are attempting to capitalize on the flood gate controversy. The GOP duo rips the county’s handling of the matter on the Somerset County Republican Organization website.

“Despite reports of damaging weather in South Jersey hours earlier, the county negligently failed to close the Bound Brook flood gates during Hurricane Ida,” Lemma and Gallic posted.

“Numerous homes that should have been protected were destroyed, and tens of millions of dollars in damage occurred. Not a single county employee was held accountable and numerous homeowners are suing due to the county’s negligence.”