The recent rain and flooding in Maidencreek Township — documented here — certainly showed how much our community struggles to handle such water volume. Creeks flooded, property was damaged around the neighborhoods, roads and sidewalks were unnavigable: it was a colossal stress to us, our friends and neighbors, and this WFMZ article posted late last week shows that the impact of this rain continues around us:

“The pressure of that water sitting in that pond begins to push down and find some way to relieve itself,” said Figueroa. “Well, it created a sinkhole that’s about 12 feet wide and about 9 ft deep.”

He says the water flowed through the sinkhole into at least four homes on the block.

“Our concern is that we’ve contacted the township, I’ve contacted the county, I’ve contacted the state and the concern is that they’re sending me to the neighbor because they’re saying this retention pond is on the neighbor’s property,” explained Figueroa.

The township response — click the WFMZ link above to read is entirely reasonable; however, what is NOT reasonable is the fact that all of this happened in our backyards before we even consider the potential impact of the million-square-foot warehouse that’s been proposed along Rt. 222 between Tamarack Blvd and Schaffer Rd.

Again, look at the images from the floods and think: HOW MUCH WORSE WILL THIS BE WITH 80+ ACRES OF IMPERMEABLE CONCRETE AND ASSOCIATED TRUCK TRAFFIC?

The proposed warehouse would have three retention ponds much larger than the one in this article, but pond/creek breaches are not all that uncommon. The proposed development is simply too large, with too great a volume of impervious surfaces, to be considered safe or good for our community.

It’s just NOT safe.

While the township is right that this storm was considered a “thousand-year event,” it’s clear that we’re making more and more history in 2023 alone when it comes to climate, weather and their knock-on effects.

It’s NOT TOO LATE to stop this warehouse.