FAIRFIELD — A new grass-roots group presented its recommendations Tuesday night for solving a long-standing flooding problem that has plagued several North Jersey communities.

Recommendations of the Fairfield Citizens for Flood Control Reform include:

  • Dredging the Passaic River
  • Building floodgates at Beatties Dam in Little Falls
  • Locking the floodgates at the Pompton Lakes Dam to turn it into a natural-spillover dam
  • Revising the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ 1990 plan for mitigating flooding along the Passaic River that had recommended a tunnel to divert floodwaters to Newark Bay to work in conjunction with levees and flood walls
  • Stop all building in areas that flood

The group shared its recommendations with a crowd of more than 300 people at the Winston Churchill School. Representatives of the Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Environmental Protection also fielded questions from frustrated residents, who clearly did not want to hear that further study would be needed to move forward with long-term engineering solutions to mitigate flooding.

“We do a lot of talking and nothing gets done,” said Wally Capra of Fairfield. “How much research do we have to do?”

Fairfield Mayor James Gasparini said the township’s citizens’ committee is meant to serve as a regional group to push for solutions to flooding for all 35 towns in thePassaic River Basin.

The committee came together after the recent flooding in March. One member, Charlie Bush, said the group was unhappy with a state report released in February that outlined short- and long-term solutions to ease flooding. Bush said the report did not include concrete timelines for completing any of the recommended projects. And the committee disagrees with the report’s recommendations to buy out homes in frequently flooded neighborhoods because “buyouts don’t stop the water,” Bush said.

Assemblyman Scott Rumana, R-Wayne, who heads a regional flooding task force, said the turnout at Tuesday’s meeting was “magnificent” and told the crowd that it is important keep pushing for action.

“It is important for everybody in government at all levels to see your faces and what you are experiencing,” Rumana said.

“The effort of everybody here to make sure that we push the Army Corps to keep their focus on this problem, to keep the DEP and state government focused on this problem, to keep our elected officials focused on this problem,” Rumana said. “That is an important thing.”