CRANBERRY TWP — The township has become the eighth municipality to contribute to a regional stormwater study.

On Thursday, supervisors approved the allocation of $8,147.20 to participate in the study, known as the Lower Connoquenessing Watershed Stormwater Planning Study, which will examine release rates in nine communities in the southern tier of Butler County. Engineers from Herbert, Rowland & Grubic, the firm chosen for the study, will also design three projects in each municipality to help stem the tide of flooding in the area.

The study is the result of meetings between the municipalities — Adams, Cranberry, Jackson and Lancaster townships as well as Evans City, Harmony, Mars, Seven Fields and Zelienople boroughs — and Mark Gordon, Butler County's chief of economic development and planning, on how to mitigate damage from flooding.

The county organized the study and is paying 20 percent of the project's $76,380 cost, or $15,275. The local governments are responsible for the remaining 80 percent, with Jackson Township paying the most at $10,000 and Harmony the least at $3,500.

With Cranberry's approval Thursday, Mars is the only municipality yet to sign up for the study.

Cranberry's involvement in the study — and in the meetings that led to it — may be surprising as the township has a minimal part of its area inside the Connoquenessing watershed.

“As part of our comprehensive plan, our board of supervisors feels very positive about intermunicipal cooperation,” said Cranberry manager Jerry Andree.

The meetings from which the study stems began in October, when seven municipalities discussed ways to work together to determine possible solutions for widespread flooding in recent years.

At the time, Gordon said one major benefit from the communities working together is that cost-sharing would reduce an “extremely burdensome” price on steps to address flooding. Gordon added that municipalities would have to contribute funds for the study rather than wait on grants.

A study conducted by the county in preparation for its Act 167 of 2010 implementation was partly intended to determine flood mitigation actions. But, Gordon said, the county ran out of funds for that section of the study in the aftermath of the 2007-2009 recession. Act 167 required that each county must prepare and adopt a watershed stormwater management plan.

Individual municipalities have conducted their own studies to determine their own release rates. In Harmony, having conducted that study in the past led some borough council members to be reticent of contributing funds toward this study.

But one major benefit, said leaders in the municipalities that have signed up for the study, is that this acknowledges water doesn't stop at municipal borders, and that the results may allow better cooperation in the future.