Will ALCO projects cause more flooding problems in Stockade?
Re Sept. 24 article, “Alco site eyed for TV and film studio”: Will the Gazette please do more to inform those living along the Mohawk waterfront about how development of the ALCO property could affect the flooding risk to their properties?
I have a home in the East Front Street neighborhood, which over the last 72 years experienced many floods without waters entering the first-floor apartment — except those brought on by Hurricane Lee and Tropical Storm Irene.
My home on River Street was, and remains, protected from flood waters by an earthen berm elevating an abandoned rail siding from the main rail line, where it leads to the trestle crossing the river into the ALCO property.
Interestingly, Irene’s flood waters were only about nine inches higher than the flood waters of 1996, yet the water level in my home was three feet higher and the flood waters gushed in down the street to my home.
The explanation for how these waters invaded my home is complex, but I believe those waters flooded in from the river through the ALCO property, Mohawk Avenue, Front Street and the back yards of properties along Front Street, and gushed out of these yards to flow down River Street.
The river’s flood waters were augmented by sewage overflowing from manholes for a sewage line running along Front Street — a persistent problem now for many years after heavy rain.
What I find online, and specifically from the Gazette, concerns me that development of the ALCO property could adversely affect properties in the East Front Street and Stockade neighborhood by raising the level of flood waters upstream of ALCO; failing to eliminate the existing pathways over which flood waters reach my, and other properties in my neighborhood, and usurping funding which could be used to correct the problem of the overflowing sewer line.
SCHENECTADY : Public offers ideas on flood control BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter Elevate the houses along the river. Demolish the canal system of locks. Dredge down to dig out a deeper riverbed. Residents of the Stockade and Rotterdam Junction had many expensive ideas Monday on how to keep their neighborhoods safe from future floods. They eagerly presented their ideas at the fi rst of many meetings designed to develop a project proposal for state funding. The state has set aside $3 million each for Schenectady and Rotterdam, but the communities must come up with a plan by March or they won’t be able to apply for the money. It’s part of a statewide effort called Rising New York. Communities are meeting to design plans that make their neighborhoods more “resilient” in the face of future flooding. “It’s going to happen again and again and again and we need to be ready,” said Sarah Crowell, a Department of State employee coordinating the region’s plans. She emphasized the “resilience” phrase, suggesting that residents consider ways to make their community stronger economically, culturally or physically. But residents focused mostly on the last: they want to protect their houses. Engineer Greg Sauer of the Stockade proposed elevating the 15 or so houses in his neighborhood most in danger of regular flooding. All of those houses sit next to the Mohawk River, at the end of the side streets that head toward Riverside Park. All of them have gotten flooded in recent years. He proposed raising them and the street itself, with stairs leading down to the park. Elevating each house would cost $40,000 to $50,000, he estimated. The city probably couldn’t afford to elevate every house in the 500-year flood plain — which is supposed to be the rarer flood — because there’s at least 40 houses in that area, he said. But he thought it would be affordable to raise the 15 houses closest to the river, in the 100-year flood plain. If the city used $2 million of its $3 million from the state, it could raise all of the houses in the 500-year flood danger zone. He said elevating houses would protect the historic houses, arguing that the only other fail-safe would be a d ike. “If you put a d ike in the Stockade, you’re really going to destroy the neighborhood,” he said, adding that the idea had been proposed and rejected in the 1970s. But a d ike could protect Schenectady County Community College, which is also vulnerable to floods, he said. “These buildings are so massive you couldn’t jack them up. You’d probably have to use the d ike,” he said. Others had different ideas. Marty Byster, whose house flooded when Tropical Storm Irene hit, said he was suspicious of the steady increase in flooding. In his 72 years in the Stockade, he said, it’s never flooded this badly before and it used to rarely flood at all. He blames the lock system. “I think Lock 7 is a problem that really should be addressed,” he said. He was one of many who thinks the canal system is responsible for increased flooding. But Sauer said he had created engineering models to see whether a lower lock would make a difference. It didn’t. He thinks Byster is onto something — but he thinks the only solution would involve removing the entire lock system. “The Stockade didn’t flood like this in the 1800s,” he said. “You could remove the locks. But I don’t see it happening.” Similarly, he said, deepening the river channel could help by giving the water somewhere to go before it rolled over its banks. That, too, would work but would not be practical. “It’s a fairly major undertaking,” he said, estimating that at $20 million to $30 million. Byster listened carefully. “I want to know what I’m going to do with my house,” he said. “Should I elevate it? Or is it best to give it up because you can’t really prevent flooding anymore?” He’s already spent $50,000 renovating after the latest fl ood. He wasn’t sure he could afford to pay to raise his house. “I could try to find the money,” he said. “I would like to save my house.” Rising New York will continue to gather ideas at upcoming meetings before developing a project that will be submitted to the state in March. The next meeting will be at Rotterdam Town Hall at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Logged
