Bob Cupka was among those evacuating Millvale on Thursday afternoon, coping with several feet of water in his basement. But unlike his neighbors along the 900 block of Hansen Street, Cupka will return to face a backyard ravaged by the rising waters of Girty’s Run. The tributary of the Allegheny River upended the 4-foot-high retaining wall built by the borough after storms that followed Hurricane Ivan. Cupka said a Millvale worker who helped build the wall acknowledged that he failed to pin the 100-foot-long concrete span to any kind of foundation. “In my yard I had a dog house, a shed, a trampoline, an above-ground swimming pool, a grill, picnic tables,” said Cupka, 55, a warehouse supervisor at Pittsburgh Cut Flowers in the Strip District. “It’s all ruined.” Cupka is not the only one frustrated by the continued flooding of Girty’s Run, which snakes through Millvale and parts of Shaler, Ross and Reserve. Some nearby residents and businesses say dredging the stream bed could help keep the water within its banks, but the state Department of Environmental Protection is reluctant. Joe Wadlow, owner of Monte Cello’s Restaurant on Babcock Boulevard at Thompson Run Road, said his parking lot was awash by midday from the creek 15 feet below. “I think part of the problem is the government agencies will not permit us to take equipment into these streams and creek beds to clean out things like tires and doors and refrigerators and trees,” Wadlow said. “Ours gets all backed up.” Helen Humphreys, a DEP spokeswoman, said dredging is a temporary fix to flooding. She pointed to the local land owners and municipalities, who are responsible for keeping streams free of debris — although DEP does restrict heavy equipment from being driven over stream beds. Millvale Manager Virginia Heller said her municipality does that routine cleaning, but blamed the Army Corps of Engineers for failing to complete its plan to return Girty’s Run to pre-Hurricane Ivan condition. Karen Auer, spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh office of the Corps of Engineers, said money for that project was temporarily diverted to cleanup after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and just returned to the local project earlier this year. But that contract won’t be awarded before October. That improvement would only restore Girty’s Run to flood-protection level of the 1960s, even though storms today are far fiercer, Auer said. A proposal by U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, in a bill moving through Congress, would bring that plan up to date, though money for the improvement still would need to be appropriated. In addition to clotted streams, Millvale also struggles with the fact that its combined drainage system takes on both wastewater and stormwater. Email Newsletters TribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.