1 2 NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY 3 ASSEMBLY STANDING COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION 4 ASSEMBLY STANDING COMMITTEE 5 ON GOVERNMENTAL OPERATIONS 6 ___________________________________________________ Public Hearing on the Safety of New York State Dams 7 8 Thursday, February 9, 2006, 10:00 a.m. Schenectady County Community College 9 Stockade Building, Room 101 78 Washington Avenue 10 Schenectady, New York 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 0002 1 Proceedings - Dam Safety - 2-9-2006 2 FOR THE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION 3 Chairperson, Thomas P. DiNapoli Assemblyperson Aileen M. Gunther 4 5 FOR THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL OPERATIONS 6 Chairperson, RoAnn M. Destito 7 _____________________________________________ 8 Assemblyperson Paul D. Tonko 9 Assemblyperson Kevin Cahill 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 0003 1 Proceedings - Dam Safety - 2-9-2006 2 W I T N E S S L I S T Honorable Michael R. McNulty.................. 17 3 Congressman United States House of Representatives, 4 21st District 5 Denise Sheehan, Commissioner.................. 38 New York State Department of Environmental 6 Conservation 7 Emily Lloyd, Commissioner.....................145 New York City Department of Environmental 8 Protection 9 Michael Principe..............................173 10 Paul Rush.....................................181 11 Alfonzo Lopez.................................183 12 Thomas J. Fargione............................239 Deputy Director 13 State Emergency Management Office 14 Panel Honorable Michael Berardi.....................273 15 Legislator Ulster County Legislature 16 Honorable Susan E. Savage.....................278 17 Chair Schenectady County Legislature 18 Panel 19 Karen A. Miller...............................300 Public Information Officer 20 Schoharie County 21 William Van Hoesen............................309 Director 22 Schenectady County Emergency Management 23 Gary Nestoe...................................323 Brian Largeteau...............................330 24 Panel 0004 1 Proceedings - Dam Safety - 2-9-2006 2 Honorable James Galligan......................332 Supervisor 3 Town of Forestburgh 4 Honorable Mark House..........................338 Supervisor 5 Town of Deerpark 6 John LiGreci..................................331 7 Panel Dam Concerned Citizens 8 Gail Schaffer.................................367 Michael J. Quinn, P.E.........................385 9 Lester Hendrix................................391 Howard Roger Bartholomew......................392 10 Panel 11 Timothy Sweeney...............................408 Regulatory Watch Program Director 12 Environmental Advocates 13 Bruce Carpenter...............................413 Executive Director 14 New York Rivers United 15 Panel Neversink Flood Victims 16 Timothy O'Leary...............................429 Michael O'Leary...............................430 17 SUBMITTED TESTIMONY: 18 Peter D. Lopez (2 pages double sided) 19 Arthur Snyder (3 pages) 20 James McMahon (6 pages) 21 Eleanor Currie (1 page) 22 Sherrie Bartholomew (3 Page) 23 William Albers (1 page) 24 Association of Dam Safety Officials (8 pages) 0005 1 Proceedings - Dam Safety - 2-9-2006 2 (The hearing commenced 10:13 3 a.m.) 4 CHAIRPERSON DiNAPOLI: Thank you 5 for your patience as we get settled in and start 6 our hearing. I'm Tom DiNapoli, Chair of the 7 Assembly Standing Committee on Environmental 8 Conservation. 9 I'm joined by Assemblymember 10 RoAnn Destito who chairs our government operations 11 committee and does a great job in that capacity and 12 we're very pleased to be hosted by our colleague, 13 Assemblyman Paul Tonko. It was Assemblyman Tonko 14 who first brought to our respective committees 15 the -- the desire to have this meeting on Dam 16 safety in New York State. 17 His request was echoed by 18 Assemblymembers Aileen Gunther and Assemblymember 19 Kevin Cahill both of whom I think we're going to be 20 seeing before the day is out. It's a busy time of 21 year for all of us so you -- I think you'll be 22 seeing several colleagues coming and going today. 23 But we certainly appreciate the participation of 24 all of those who've agreed to provide testimony and 0006 1 Proceedings - Dam Safety - 2-9-2006 2 certainly obviously given the turn out the -- 3 the -- the interest of the -- of the citizens of 4 the state of New York and this important issue. 5 So I welcome all of you. Given 6 recent events concerning dam safety in New York 7 State, including the Dam failure in Fort Ann this 8 past summer and the emergency repairs being 9 undertaken on the Gilboa Dam we certainly believe 10 this hearing is timely. 11 The hearing location is also 12 significant, Schenectady County Community College 13 along with the stockade district of Schenectady is 14 in the flood path of the Gilboa Dam. While 15 Schenectady's stockade district is about sixty 16 miles from Gilboa, failure of that dam could 17 severely impact the people and historic properties 18 of this community. 19 The stockade historic district is 20 one of the oldest and best preserved neighborhoods 21 in the country with roots dating back to a 22 seventeenth century Dutch colonial trading 23 settlement and while we certainly feel that 24 emergency officials are keeping a close eye on the 0007 1 Proceedings - Dam Safety - 2-9-2006 2 dam if something were to happen residents of the 3 stockade would have only about an estimated ten 4 hours to get out. 5 Compared to the minutes that 6 residents just below Gilboa would have this may 7 seem like a significant amount of time but trying 8 to imagine the thousands of people having to move 9 themselves and their possessions -- minutes or 10 hours leaves all of us with a concern and certainly 11 gives us all pause. 12 We certainly want to avoid a 13 situation such as that. 14 In the Hudson Valley residents 15 have been subject to increasingly frequent flooding 16 which has caused -- caused millions of dollars 17 worth of damage to homes, businesses, roads, 18 bridges, sewage treatment plants and has even 19 resulted in the loss of human life. 20 While it is true that rivers will 21 flood regardless of our best preparations it is 22 imperative that we do our collective best to guard 23 against those damages that can be prevented. We 24 have an impressive list of -- of individuals 0008 1 Proceedings - Dam Safety - 2-9-2006 2 testifying today, elected federal representatives, 3 state and New York City regulatory officials, local 4 government representatives, state and local 5 emergency management representatives and concerned 6 citizens on this important issue of dam safety in 7 New York. 8 With thousands of existing dams 9 in our state and many thousands of people living 10 and working in the path of these dams we must look 11 closely at our current system of dam regulation. 12 Today's hearing will help us to determine where 13 short comings in our system exist and help us to 14 focus on changes that need to be made and I really 15 want to state at the outset and I know I speak for 16 my fellow chair and all the Assemblymembers, we 17 really do appreciate the representatives from New 18 York State D.E.C. and New York City D.E.P. for 19 taking the time to participate in the hearing. It 20 shows how concerned they are about this issue as 21 well and we know that they're testimony is going to 22 be particularly important to our deliberations. 23 I now turn the mic over to my 24 colleague, Assemblywoman, RoAnn Destito, Chair of 0009 1 Proceedings - Dam Safety - 2-9-2006 2 our Standing Committee on Governmental Operations. 3 CHAIRPERSON DESTITO: Thank you 4 very much, Chairman DiNapoli and Chairman Tonko. 5 It was Assemblyman Tonko that first brought the 6 issue of dam safety to both Tom DiNapoli and 7 myself's attention and dam safety is a serious 8 issue that impacts many communities across the 9 state and Paul and I like to talk to -- talk about 10 each other as the bookends of the Mohawk Valley. 11 I'm from the Utica-Rome area. I represent the 12 Utica-Rome area and of course, Paul is out here. 13 So we consider ourselves at -- at either end of the 14 Mohawk Valley. 15 ASSEMBLYPERSON TONKO: And we 16 adopted Tom. 17 CHAIRPERSON DESTITO: And we 18 adopted Tom DiNapoli from Long Island to be in the 19 middle here today. So it's appropriate that we're 20 sitting this way. 21 Recent dam failures and flooding 22 highlight -- highlighted by the Chairman raises a 23 number of public safety concerns that need to be 24 addressed as he discussed in his opening statement. 0010 1 Proceedings - Dam Safety - 2-9-2006 2 My committee's role in the hearing involves 3 oversight of the state's disaster preparedness, 4 mitigation and response to natural and man-made 5 disasters. 6 In 1978 the state enacted Article 7 2B. of the executive law which sets forth the 8 policy of the state in dealing with disaster. 9 Article 2B. also created the disaster preparedness 10 commission which consists of twenty-six agency 11 heads including the Department of Environmental 12 Conservation whom we want to thank Commissioner for 13 being here and the State Emergency Management 14 Office, SEMO. And they both will be testifying 15 here today. 16 The commission has many 17 responsibilities including to study aspects of 18 disaster prevention response and recovery, prepare 19 state disaster plans and review them annually, 20 prepare and keep on current inventory of programs 21 related to prevention, minimization -- minimization 22 of damage readiness and recovery, coordinate the 23 state and local disaster preparedness operations 24 and assure that all state personal with direct 0011 1 Proceedings - Dam Safety - 2-9-2006 2 responsibilities in the event of a disaster are 3 familiar with response and recovery plans and the 4 manner in which they shall carry out their 5 responsibilities and coordinate the federal, state 6 and local operations and personnel.