LUMBERTON — The date for the completion of the Lumber River cleanup has been pushed back because of high water level.

Work has been halted as contractors wait for the river’s water level to drop, but will continue in the next couple of weeks, said Lucas Baxley, district technician for the Robeson County office of Soil and Water Conservation. The new deadline for completion is in the next few months.

“We’re shooting for the summer, hopefully, in June,” Baxley said.

The month of February brought heavy rain, which caused the river’s depth to peak above 13 feet, which is classified as the flood stage. The rain and resulting high water level pushed back the spring completion date.

“That set us back,” Baxley said. “We’re just now getting on track.”

The river’s water level near West Fifth Street was measured on Monday afternoon at 11.34 feet.

River cleanup began in August with two contractors handling the project. One is in charge of work from a point near the Campbell Soup facility near Maxton and is working toward Lumberton. The other contractor started where the Big Swamp enters the Lumber River near Boardman, at the Columbus and Robeson county line, and is working to where Lowe Road crosses the river, a location west of Interstate 95.

The hope is the cleanup will enhance the river flow to prevent the kind of flooding that followed hurricanes Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018, when those storms dropped as much as 18 to 24 inches of rain in one day during Matthew and three during Florence. Flooding occurred throughout the county, but was the worst in Lumberton, which is dissected by the river.