Supervisor spars with DEC official

Visit from state legislators yields emergency permit

By FRITZ MAYER

YOUNGSVILLE, NY — In the aftermath of a meeting between state and local officials, the NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) arranged for “emergency authorization” for debris and gravel deposits to be removed from creeks in the Town of Callicoon.

That word came in the form of a press release from Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther on August 17, following a meeting between various officials on August 13 arranged by Town of Callicoon Supervisor Linda Babicz to discuss recent flooding and what actions town officials may and may not take in response to it.

It was clear that there is a difference between what the town considers an emergency and what the DEC considers an emergency.

At the meeting, which took place near the banks of the East Branch Callicoon Creek, Senator John Bonacic started out by explaining that the DEC was concerned about the environment and fish, but also about ensuring that actions taken by local officials don’t create a bigger problem for communities downstream.

Babicz told Bonacic that crews going into the creeks after the flooding removed trees, as they had every right to do and, in her interpretation of the law, they were allowed to restore the creek to the way it had been before the flooding. She said that crews had moved some gravel but they did not dredge the creek bed.

William Rudge, a DEC natural resources supervisor, indicated that the crews went farther than he thought they should have. Rudge said that when it comes to “moving gravel and restructuring the channel of the stream, we can make a prevailing argument that you’re better off letting waters recede to some extent and thinking out that plan.”

Babicz made the point that the town and the DEC had different views on what actions to take. She said, “The Town of Callicoon wanted to extend our emergency to August 10; the DEC ordered us to get out of the brook on August 4 and this raises a home-rule issue. And there is a matter of semantics: what the DEC feels is eminent danger and what we feel is eminent are two different things.”

Rudge conceded that semantics were part of the picture and said that the agency was willing to work with the town. Past experience, including the threat of heavy fines, presently and in the past, has left bruised feelings among residents of the town.

In the aftermath of the severe flooding in June 2006, town crews worked in the creeks for weeks, despite orders from the DEC not to. By way of a settlement, Gregg Semenetz, the supervisor at the time, and the town board agreed to pay $43,000 to a private consulting company to come up with a plan to deal with the flooding issues in the East Branch Callicoon Creek and Panther Rock Creek. And the town spent some $300,000 putting riprap, plants and other materials into the creeks in hopes of stabilizing the beds and banks.

As it turns out, most of that work was done in vain. Just about all of it was washed away by flooding on July 30 and 31.

With the new permit, crews can go back into the creeks and remove downed trees. But residents are looking for a more permanent fix. The Army Corps of Engineers is studying ways to mitigate flooding in the Callicoon Creek Watershed, but that won’t be finished for a few more years.

In the meantime, Babicz and others in the town are telling anyone in Albany who will listen that residents are suffering financially and otherwise under the repeated flooding in the area.