Published: June 29, 2008 09:50 pm      

TOWN OF LOCKPORT: Supervisor says DEC feedback suggests town on right path approaching Donner Creek flooding issues

TOWN OF LOCKPORT — The recently completed Donner Creek Watershed Analysis will be returned to the town board for a firm decision how to proceed with flood control.

Town officials met with Department of Environmental Conservation representatives June 25 to review the analysis and get a sense if they’re headed in the right direction when it comes to getting arms around the flooding problem that plagues a southeast section of the town.

According to Supervisor Marc Smith, the meeting established common ground for the town and DEC.

Environmental officials “were very pleased with what we came up with,” he said. “We’re all speaking the same language now. They liked how we handled the modeling.”

The watershed analysis, done by town engineer Rob Klavoon, showed how well the creek could be made to handle a 10-year flood event, given certain courses of action by the town. It could do nothing and let the flooding worsen as the creek is silted in over time; could take some actions to holding flooding to existing levels; or could take more extensive actions to ease flooding and increase the creek’s ability to handle a significant storm.

Klavoon recommended to the board previously that it embrace a program to hold flooding, mainly along Hamm Road and Locust Street Extension, to current levels.

The program would include annual, non-mechanical removal of brush, debris and other materials in the creek; cleaning and improvement of existing retention ponds at Southview Gardens and Wellington Heights subdivisions; and enlargement of an existing culvert upstream of the Wellington Heights pond.

The town’s cost would be up to $360,000 and should stop flooding from worsening, although it would not increase creek capacity, Klavoon predicted.

The analysis also suggested a work package that would lessen local flooding and allow the creek to handle a 10-year flood event, at an estimated cost of $1 million-plus. About 20 property owners would be directly assisted if the town took on all the above-mentioned work plus built a new retention pond near Locust Street and modified the creek’s path at particular points, the report said. Those actions also would likely increase creek flow downstream into Pendleton.

In either scenario, the town would need permits from DEC in order to perform work in or around the creek. That’s why Smith and Klavoon presented the analysis to DEC officials. Up to this point, DEC has refused to allow the town to dredge the creek, partly out of concern for the ways that isolated action might affect points elsewhere on the creek.

“We’ve come up with ways to deal with (creek issues in the town) cutting off the city (of Lockport) or pushing the problem off to Pendleton,” Smith said.

It will be up to the town board to decide which option it should pursue. Previously, Smith said board members were largely settled on the mid-range option, holding flooding to current levels, because reducing flooding would cost too much for too little gain.

Once the board does decide, Highway Superintendent Lewis Hagen will have to schedule work and also budget the expenses. That means improvement work likely won’t be undertaken for a while, Smith said, adding that one of the more time-consuming projects will be the town’s acquisition of permanent easements from affected landowners.

The town requires easements — perpetual legal access to private land — so that its workers can perform “snag and drag” maintenance and other tasks. Smith suspects some landowners won’t consent because they’re angry with the town over the flooding, which has persisted for years.

“We all know there are some difficult residents there,” he said.

Smith said he feels assured, after the meeting with the DEC officials, that when the town does seek creek work permits in the future, it won’t encounter the resistance that it has in the past.

“I would expect they’ll OK (permit requests),” he said.

Megan Gollwitzer, spokesman for the DEC’s Buffalo regional office, said DEC can’t promise that — the town has not even picked a work option to pursue yet — but said officials in the meeting praised the town’s effort to understand the creek from a bigger-picture point of view than it has in the past.

“The report represents a positive step forward and will be a helpful tool in determining the appropriate elements required to address flooding issues associated with potential projects,” she said.