Posted on August 15, 2016
By John R. Roby, pressconnects
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is prepared to launch a long-awaited flood-mitigation study of the Upper Susquehanna River Basin, according to Sen. Charles E. Schumer.
In a news release, the senator announced a deal between the corps and New York State that will fund a three-year probe into the status of the basin’s levees, its areas of high flood risk and its communities’ mitigation plans.
The study will mean “vulnerable Southern Tier homes, businesses and public infrastructure could soon see vital protection implemented against future devastation,” Schumer said.
The Upper Susquehanna basin in New York stretches from the Southern Tier state line in a rough fan shape north into Schuyler, Onondaga, Herkimer, Schoharie and Delaware counties, draining more than 4,500 square miles. It includes the Chenango, Tioughnioga and Unadilla rivers, and about 489,000 New Yorkers live in its boundaries.
The corps will hold an as-yet-unscheduled meeting in Binghamton to move the study forward, according to Schumer’s office. The study is expected to take three years, and lead to specific mitigation projects that could lessen the damage of future floods.
It would be the latest step in an effort to come to grips with how to control flood risk in the basin. It began after the 2006 floods. Schumer secured federal funds for a reconnaissance study — the prelude to the sort of feasibility study announced Tuesday — that was completed in 2010.
Since then, the corps has received additional funds from the efforts of Schumer, former Rep. Maurice Hinchey and others in Congress, and has sought cost-sharing partners for the next step.
A previous attempt at a flood-mitigation study along the Susquehanna was funded by Congress in 1996 but never undertaken, according to Press & Sun-Bulletin archives.
The federal tab for the study announced Tuesday could total $1.5 million, according to Schumer’s office, of which $1.2 million has been secured. New York’s share was expected to be about $1.4 million, according to a 2015 fact sheet published by the Army corps.
No details of the updated state total were available.
Source: pressconnects
