Decision on dam repairs not likely this month
The Kingston Board of Water Commissioners is unlikely to take any action this month on needed repairs to the dam at the city’s Cooper Lake reservoir in Woodstock.
“I don’t think that is likely,” city Water Superintendent Judith Hansen said in an email. “The board is exploring the latest financing programs included in the [state] budget, and we are still trying to see which, if any, will fund dam work.”
Hansen, who previously expressed optimism that the board would advance the project in April or May, said the city Water Department has “enlisted” the help of Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, D-Kingston, and Sen. George Amedore, R-Rotterdam, in hopes of getting budget information.
“Once we get the funding figured out, the board will move forward with the project,” Hansen said.
She said previously that if the
Water Department could not find grants or low-interest loans to offset the cost of the $4.77 million project, it would have to ask the Common Council to borrow the entire amount. If that happens,
Hansen had said, users’ water rates could rise by as much as 18 percent.
Hansen said as far back as June 2015 that the dam is not in compliance with regulations.
The necessary work will involve “taking the dam and doing certain things that need to be done to bring it into compliance
with current design standards,” Hansen said at the time. “I don’t want to give the impression that the dam is not safe. It is safe. But the DEC (state Department of Environmental Conservation) wants all dam owners to go through this process and do what needs to be done to bring dams into compliance with current
standards.”
Hansen said an engineering report found no problems with the structural integrity of the dam.
The majority of the needed repair work at the dam isn’t complicated, “but it is expensive,” she said.
The Board of Water Commissioners also is considering authorizing work to expand
the capacity of Cooper Lake.
The board is considering raising the lake’s water capacity by 2.5 feet, which would increase the maximum amount of water it could hold from 1.2 billion to 1.5 billion gallons.
Another scenario would raise the lake by 5 feet, to a capacity of 1.7 billion gallons.
The combined cost of improving the dam and increasing the lake’s capacity would be between $7.68 million and $9.86 million, Hansen has said.
Cooper Lake has been raised three times since the Kingston Water Department bought the property in 1897, she said.