The Whippany River, like most waterways, doesn’t respect town borders.
Part of the greater Passaic River Basin that covers much of northern New Jersey, the 16-mile-long Whippany runs east for about half the length of Morris County before its waters flow into the Rockaway River, and soon after the Passaic, on its path to the sea.
Rising in Mendham Township and reaching nearly as far as the Essex County border past East Hanover, the meandering river and its streams spread finger-like over 12 towns from as far south as Madison and Florham Park to Mountain Lakes in the north.
When the river leaps its banks, as it has repeatedly over the course of increasingly severe hurricanes in the past 12 years, the surge that is carrying away an SUV in one town is the same water that is flooding basements and neighborhoods in another.
The problem is shared, according to officials from the six towns most affected by the flooding, and so is the solution.
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