DAVE KENNEDY/FOR THE EXPRESS Mary and Brian Barnes of Lancaster look over the huge piles of rock and areas where ground was washed away by Tropical Storm Debby a year ago.

ENGLISH CENTER — Cradling a rock in her right hand, Mary Barnes and her husband, Brian, said they were only trying to do what they thought was the right thing following Tropical Storm Debby last August.

The rock is one of tons left on the property of English Center Manor, an airbnb in the village of English Center in Pine Township, Lycoming County, which is currently up for sale.

The “river rock” she held up is an example which Mary has documented to show the sheer force of nature, but it is a part of a major problem they are facing.

It’s no secret how the village took on flood water when the Debby dumped as much as nine inches of rain in a few short hours the morning of Aug. 9, 2024. The flood caused massive damage and realigned creeks and bodies of water.

At English Center Manor, the flood heaved mounds of mud, silt and rocks up and over the bank and deposited rocks, dirt and silt spread across the lawn – that was, until Debby, a blanket of soft green grass regularly manicured and mowed.

“We lost two outbuildings that just floated away,” Mary said, adding how the creek deposited what remained in the manor’s rear yard. “We were shocked at how to get rid of it,” she confessed.

After the water receded, Barnes and her husband, Brian, of Denver, near Lancaster, described what they encountered and they discussed with the Sun-Gazette and on Facebook the situation they are facing with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and its Northcentral Regional office in Williamsport.

With little immediate help from any one, they turned to a faith-based ministry they knew of in Lancaster called Hands and Feet Ministry whose personnel took the three-hour trip up bringing with them machinery and equipment to push the rocks and dirt back toward the direction of the creek.

Mary became choked up with emotion showing a loving appreciation for the ministry and its helpers and those in the village. Hands and Feet Ministry has promised to return if they are needed, and they might have to be.

“Cause they’re amazing,” she said of the volunteers who pushed the rock and dirt to the edge, creating what could be described as a type of escarpment above the lower level of what also used to be the manor’s property.

So, that should be a good thing, right? she was asked by a reporter.

“Ah, we’re having a problem,” Mary said. It’s with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP),” she said. “They’re saying that ‘we put all this here,'” she said, standing on the ridgeline of rocks and dirt and looking down the embankment toward the creek. The water could be heard from a distance but the sightline was blocked by a thicket of overgrowth and downed trees, evidence of the storm damage that remains to this day.

“They’re also saying that it can’t go back to where it came from, that we physically have to remove it to another place outside of here,” Mary said exasperated, victims of a natural disaster — a 50-year flood — and getting no help from the state, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or private insurance.

“We have met with them,” Mary said of the Northcentral Regional office of DEP in Williamsport.

“And we have met with other authorities as well on what to do and there were agreements put in place,” she said, adding, “however they have reneged on those agreements and are back to saying that we are in violation because of the river rock that washed up from the creek during a massive 50-year flood.”

“If you’ve ever dealt with bureaucratic things it can be a real hassle — and we’re there.”

“We didn’t want to create a berm,” Brian said.

An environmental

protection agency responds

“DEP understands the severe damage that flooding can cause and remains firmly committed to its mission to protect public safety and Pennsylvania’s water resources,” DEP stated in a response to the continuing situation. The material was provided and documented by the inspection by the staff from the department’s Bureau of Waterways Engineering and Wetlands.

The statement provided a timeline of activities done and what is done after natural disasters such as Debby.

Following flood events, DEP works directly with impacted property owners, including for the issuance of emergency permits where appropriate, the statement said.

Stream work that is not properly designed and permitted can cause conditions to worsen in the next flood event, also impacting downstream neighbors, according to the department.

Specifically relating to this case, berms constructed from unconsolidated gravel and stream bed material are likely to fail during future flood events as DEP’s goal is always to achieve voluntary compliance when possible.

The department has been working with the Barnes (property owners) to resolve this matter appropriately, the statement noted.

In fact, there were two inspection reports and a notice of violation relating to this case.

DEP first inspected the site on Feb. 18. By then, the property owners had constructed a berm in the FEMA mapped floodway of Little Pine Creek without obtaining a permit or implementing any erosion and sedimentation (E&S) controls, according to the DEP.

The berm was constructed with dredged gravel debris, which is highly erodible and unstable, according to the department. DEP sent a Notice of Violation (NOV) on April 23, requesting that the berm be removed and the material disposed of appropriately in a location beyond the limits of the floodway by June 15, 2025. The department has provided the property owners with an aerial photograph that delineates the FEMA floodway boundaries.

Following a May 17, onsite meeting, the property owner requested an extension, which DEP granted, extending the deadline for corrective action to August 15.

DEP conducted a follow-up inspection on June 12, after receiving notice from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission that work was being done on the site.

During that inspection, DEP documented that roughly half of the berm material had been pushed and leveled out into a side channel of Little Pine Creek in the FEMA-mapped floodway, rather than removing the material from the floodway as requested.

DEP again requested that the site be brought into compliance by relocating the berm material from the FEMA floodway to an appropriate location.

DEP will continue to work with the property owner to ensure the site is restored to a safe and stable condition in a timely manner.

State legislator claims

‘government overreach’

Frustrated after being told by the environmentally-concerned agency they had a deadline of Aug. 15 — an extension — to get the rocks and dirt pile embedded into the ground moved — the couple has approached state Rep. Joe Hamm, R-Hepburn Township, asking him to assist.

“I have been working with the owners of the English Center Manor property in Pine Township, Lycoming County for several months,” Hamm said.

“This issue came to my attention when Pine Township Emergency Management Coordinator Dennis Buttorff contacted me,” he said. “The English Center Manor was devastated by the flooding events on Aug. 9 and 10, 2024, due to Tropical Storm Debby,” Hamm said.

A garage on the property was completely washed out, large portions of the backyard and streambank were lost, and tons of dirt and stones were left scattered all over the property,” he said.

A year later and little

to no support

“It is important to note the English Center Manor owners have received no government assistance or insurance payment for the flood damage they experienced,” Hamm said, adding the “property owners have limited access to equipment and funds, so they partnered with a volunteer group to address the dirt and stones,” a reference to the ministry.

“The volunteers and English Center Manor owners were advised to pile the dirt and stones along the streambank, which they did,” Hamm said, adding the DEP was made aware of this and asked the property owners to completely remove the dirt and stone piles from the property because they are in the floodplain, which violates (FEMA) regulations.

Removal of these large piles of dirt and stones will be costly and the property owners have spent all their discretionary funds trying to rehabilitate the damage to the property, Hamm noted.

“Because of this, I asked DEP to compromise by allowing the owners to spread the dirt and rocks throughout the remainder of the property, away from the streambank,” Hamm said adding that his thought process was — they had lost more ground than the amount of dirt and rocks that washed onto the property, so allowing them to do this would still result in a net loss of soil and rocks at the property when compared to what was there before the flooding on Aug. 9 and 10.”

“We had a site visit with DEP on May 21, and initially they seemed open to this idea,” Hamm said. The department gave the property owners a deadline of Aug. 15 to complete the remediation plan, he said.

“The property owners began moving dirt on the site shortly after that, but were halted because an officer from the state Fish Boat Commission reported (as DEP affirmed) activity at the site to the DEP.

“From that moment forward, DEP was unwilling to compromise with the property owners and demanded complete removal of the dirt and stones from the site, despite my ongoing efforts to have DEP uphold the original plan of spreading out the dirt evenly throughout the property,” Hamm said.

“I believe this case is a classic example of government overreach, when unnecessary and overcomplicated rules severely burden hardworking taxpayers who are just trying to do the right thing,” the House representative said.

Next moves, and public

advice after floods

The couple said they are grateful to Hamm but they noted the extension to clean it up is fast approaching.

They said they can only guess how much it would cost to have large equipment fill up dump trucks to have the rocks and fill hauled away and the letter sent to them indicated they must notify where the material will go before the additional cleanup begins.

Exasperated, they have taken their plight to social media and others.

“We are calling out the DEP on this,” Brian said. “They are forcing us, under penalty of a fine and threatening us that we are in violation of the environmental law and we can’t even push the dirt and rocks into a giant hole that used to be our yard,” Brian said.

DEP was asked to comment on this story to explain what the violation is and what must be done, as iterated by the couple and Hamm.

It is coming up on the one-year anniversary the village was damaged by the flood water. There were properties and cabins that took on several feet of flood water and the creek bed has been altered dramatically by the force of this natural disaster.

Brian believes the way the creek has been altered without any changes leaves the rest of the village and its inhabitants in a precarious situation should there be several inches of rain, or another 50-year flood strike.

Meanwhile, besides outlining the timeline in this investigation, DEP said it strives to assist communities by ensuring that stream work is done in an environmentally responsible manner to reduce the likelihood of future problems.

Anyone concerned about stream and flooding issues or considering stream work on their property is encouraged to review the booklet “Guidelines for Maintaining Streams in Your Community” and to contact DEP or their county conservation district as a first step.