Stormwater, stream protection grants awarded by CWC

MARGARETVILLE, N.Y., August 28, 2008 - The Catskill Watershed Corporation Board of Directors August 26 approved five grants - three to correct stormwater problems and two to address streambank erosion that threatens property and public utilities.

The Town of Andes will receive three of those awards to protect local property as well as water quality in the Tremper Kill stream, which feeds New York City’s Pepacton Reservoir. One project will re-grade ditches and install storm sewers, concrete gutters and two oil and trash separators on Coulter Road near where it intersects with Tremperskill Road and a recently-improved stormwater handling system there. A second will improve drainage from a hill north of High Street in the hamlet of Andes, and will be done in conjunction with a street reconstruction project.

Andes will also receive a grant under the CWC’s Stream Corridor Protection Program to replace a culvert on Gladstone Hollow Road to curb erosion and its impact on a sanitary sewer main.

The Town of Roxbury will get stormwater retrofit funding to design treatment for runoff from a hill above Lake Street. The project will also involve redesigning the existing collection and conveyance system which is periodically overwhelmed, flooding Lake Street yards and basements and carrying surface pollutants to the East Branch of the Delaware River, which feeds the Pepacton Reservoir.

The Windham Country Club will receive funding to correct a bank failure along the Batavia Kill stream within the Schoharie Reservoir drainage basin. The project will include a stacked rock wall and bioengineering treatments to stabilize the bank which threatens local property and an underground utility line.

In addition to these grants for new projects, the CWC Board authorized payment of $50,000 to cover the expense of maintenance of an oil and water separator at Verona Oil’s gas station and store in Windham. The separator was among stormwater control measures installed when the facility was constructed in 2005.

The Catskill Watershed Corporation is a non-profit local development corporation which runs several environmental protection, economic development and education programs in the New York City Catskill-Delaware Watershed. www.cwconline.org