ALBANY – The State Department of Environmental Conservation has awarded
$216,000 for two projects to help communities prepare for and mitigate localized flooding, improve water quality, and restore aquatic habitats in tributaries of the Hudson River Estuary.
Road-stream crossing management plans in the towns of Austerlitz, Ghent and New Baltimore in Columbia County will receive $109,806.
Trout Unlimited, in partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Columbia and Greene counties and the Housatonic Valley Association will identify and prioritize road-stream crossing replacement projects to improve stream habitat and community flood resiliency.
The area includes most of the Kline Kill, a portion of Green River, North Creek, Hannacrois Creek, and the Vlockie Kill, which includes 430 road stream crossings and 23 registered dams.
The headwaters of the Hudson River support spawning of native species including the Eastern brook trout, American eel, and river herring.
Priority replacement projects will include inadequately sized culverts that threaten both community road infrastructure and the ability for fish and wildlife to move freely in streams and stream corridors.
Trout Unlimited will survey and complete conceptual design alternatives for the highest priority crossing in each town, and one shovel-ready design for each town.
Municipal road-stream crossings in the Lower Esopus Creek watershed in Ulster County will receive $106,509.
Ulster County Department of the Environment, in partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County, will inventory and assess culverts within the Lower Esopus Watershed in order to develop town-wide, municipal road-stream crossing management plans for the towns of Woodstock, Kingston, and Saugerties.
The management plans will allow municipalities to identify priority culvert replacement projects that improve flood resiliency and road infrastructure condition and are barriers to fish and wildlife passage.
The project also will produce conceptual designs for three county crossings and shovel-ready designs for up to two additional crossings.
In recent years, repetitive flood losses in certain areas have plagued the towns of Saugerties and Woodstock.
