Action can be taken to prevent or mitigate flood damage from creeks and streams after a heavy rain, but local municipalities’ hands are tied until they receive state permits to perform the work.

Because those permits are expensive and often issued long after the damage has been done to public and private property, a group of state legislators is touting an eight-bill package that would allow municipal officials to act immediately to prevent or mitigate flood damage from local streams and creeks.

State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-12th, chairman of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, held a news conference Monday with a group of his colleagues regarding the bill package, which they hope will be approved by the state House soon.

Metcalfe said state regulations on mitigating gravel bars, debris, dams and other flood-related issues in swollen creeks and streams is cumbersome and over-regulated.

“This bill package would resolve the problem and bring common sense back,” Metcalfe said.

He said those with boots on the ground in local municipalities know what needs to be done to avoid flood damage to farmers’ fields, taxpayers’ yards, roads, culverts and bridges when heavy rains fall, not state officials.

State Rep. Clint Owlett, R-68th, said better maintenance of creeks and streams will help mitigate the threat of flooding.

“All we are trying to do with this package of bills is put our local leaders — who know their communities, their roadways and their waterways the best — in a position to address these issues before they cause property damage, or worse, loss of life,” Owlett said in a news release.

Devin Martin, a Delmar Township supervisor in Tioga County, said a culvert in his municipality needed to be replaced due to creek flooding.

Because of state permit requirements, the damaged road was reduced to one-lane traffic for 10 months.

After paying $9,500 in state permit fees, it took township workers two days to fix the culvert.

“If we at the local government level were allowed to be proactive instead of reactive, that would save hundreds of millions of dollars in the long run,” Martin said.

He said the state Association of Township Supervisors is behind the bill package.

Johnny Painter, a state Farm Bureau board member, said the bureau also supports the bill package.

He said the flooding of creeks and streams that causes erosion on farm fields could be avoided if municipalities were allowed to mitigate gravel bars or restabilize creek banks during a heavy rain.

Painter said Pennsylvania’s widely varying topography means different flooding issues for different areas, so local control of flood mitigation is needed.

“Hopefully, the General Assembly will move swiftly on this package,” he said.

The DEP declined to answer questions on the bills.

Local officials, including Dave Zarnick, chairman of the Butler Township board of commissioners, and Butler Mayor Bob Dandoy, were unaware of the bill package.

“I watch the bills pretty closely, and I have not heard of it,” Zarnick said.

He agreed that getting a permit from DEP is all but impossible, as the township finally gave up on trying to obtain permits to have a tangle of trees removed from a stream in Lyndora that had caused flood damage.

“Our former manager tried to get an emergency permit from DEP to allow a private contractor to come in and cut the trees that were impeding the flow of water,” Zarnick said. “We were not allowed to do that.”

He said when DEP officials repeatedly failed to return the township’s calls, the plan to get a permit to remove the trees was abandoned.

The bill package before the state House likely would have helped the township with that problem, but Zarnick wonders about funding.

“Up front, it sounds good, but what is the cost?” he said. “I’d have to read the fine print.”

Dandoy said he met with John Evans, Butler’s building code official, who also had not heard about the bill package.

“We really don’t know too many of the details about it,” Dandoy said.

He also is curious regarding what the bill package would mean regarding funding for flood mitigation projects, especially since the state Department of General Services paid for the majority of the $2.2 million Sullivan Run Flood Control Project.

Work is underway to replace bridges and culverts on West Penn and West Brady streets, which will mitigate recurrent flooding.

“I hope that going forward, whatever the legislation is, it doesn’t impact municipalities’ ability to draw on those resources the state provides,” Dandoy said.

He added that he understands the meaning of the bill package.

“It’s an honorable attempt to minimize bureaucracy,” Dandoy said.

Three of the bills in the package mention the county conservation districts, but the Butler County Conservation District could not be reached for comment Thursday.