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WYOMING — The state Department of Environmental Protection closed out a complaint of a blocked floodway by Charles Flack Memorial Field after the fill was removed by the borough earlier this month.
A report provided Tuesday by Colleen Connolly, a spokeswoman at DEP’s Northeast Regional Office in Wilkes-Barre, said a follow-up inspection of the site on Dec. 5 found no violations. The complaint was closed out that same day, she said.
According to the report:
On Nov. 20 DEP responded to a complaint about fill being dumped without a permit on land owned by Wyoming and the Luzerne County Redevelopment Authority near Colonial Drive and inspected the site. Representatives of the borough and LCRA accompanied DEP during the initial inspection.
Aerial photography showed that “a small amount of fill was placed” in the floodway for Abrams Creek between May 2014 and June 2016. “It appears that during the time the fill was placed on the properties, a stormwater swale was partially filled in, restricting the flow to the swale that runs north along the property.”
Neither the borough nor LCRDA took responsibility for depositing the fill, but agreed to remove it and restore the swale to correct drainage problems. They had until Dec. 6 to file corrective action plans for DEP’s approval. The plans were to include the dates of restoration, what the restoration entailed, included what equipment would be used and where the fill would be moved to.
Connolly said the plans were submitted by Nov. 22 and between Nov. 26 and 27 the borough removed the dirt and relined the swale with stone.
Efforts to reach Wyoming Mayor Joseph Dominick and Andy Reilly, executive director of the LCRDA, were unsuccessful.
