Supports project activities such as dam and barrier removal implementation, design, and project viability analysis.
Aims to improve public safety and encourage economic growth, while restoring the natural form and function of the river or stream.
Provides technical guidance, including assistance with environmental compliance and monitoring.
In the United States, millions of dams and other barriers block fish from reaching upstream spawning and rearing habitat. Dams often provide benefits, such as hydroelectric power and irrigation, but many are now obsolete. Removing these structures can improve the health of our rivers, fisheries, and our economy.
In 2005, NOAA created the Open Rivers Initiative, which provides communities with funding and technical guidance to carry out dam and barrier removal projects that restore local rivers and streams. The initiative is focused on community-driven dam and river barrier removals, with the goal of enhancing watershed health and fostering sustainable populations of migratory fish such as salmon, sturgeon, shad, river herring, and American eel. For more: http://www.habitat.noaa.gov/restoration/programs/ori.html
Town of Greece 1 Vince Tofany Blvd Rochester, NY 14612
Facility:
Braddock Bay Braddock Bay @ Lake Ontario Pkwy Greece, NY
Application ID:
8-2628-00820/00002
Permit(s) Applied for:
Article 15 Title 5 Excavation & Fill in Navigable Waters Article 24 Freshwater Wetlands Section 401 - Clean Water Act Water Quality Certification
Project is Located:
Greece, Monroe County
Project Description:
The Town of Greece is proposing a wetland protection and restoration project aimed at restoring wetland and habitat diversity in Braddock Bay and providing erosion protection to the remaining wetlands. The project would include the construction of a new headland beach breakwater structure measuring approximately 1,695 linear feet (LF) in length, including approximately 1,000 LF of headland beach, two 150 LF rubblemound breakwaters and two 180 LF terminal groins. The headland beach would be filled with borrowed sand from the bay mouth and courser sand that would be trucked in. The project also seeks to restore and enhance approximately 8.89 acres of wetland including the restoration of 3 acres of eroded wetland, the excavation of channels and potholes through the cattail marsh, and the mechanical and chemical control of invasive species. The project has been designed by the US Army Corps of Engineers and is/would be funded through the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). Additionally, the proposed work will occur on lands owned by New York State and under the management of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and NYS Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Further information related to the proposed Braddock Bay project can be found at http://www.lrb.usace.army.mil/Missions/CivilWorks/DistrictProjects/BraddockBay.aspx or by viewing the permit application file at the NYSDEC Region 8 office in Avon, NY.
Availability of Application Documents:
Filed application documents, and Department draft permits where applicable, are available for inspection during normal business hours at the address of the contact person. To ensure timely service at the time of inspection, it is recommended that an appointment be made with the contact person.
State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) Determination:
Project is a Type I action and will not have a significant effect on the environment. A coordinated review with other agencies was performed and a Negative Declaration is on file.
SEQR Lead Agency: Greece Town Board
State Historic Preservation Act (SHPA) Determination:
A cultural resources survey has been completed. Based on information provided in the survey report, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) has determined that the proposed activity will have no impact on registered or eligible archaeological sites or historic structures. No further review in accordance with SHPA is required.
Coastal Management:
This project is located in a Coastal Management area and is subject to the Waterfront Revitalization and Coastal Resources Act.
Opportunity for Public Comment:
Comments on this project must be submitted in writing to the Contact Person no later than Jun 18, 2015.
Contact:
Thomas P Haley NYSDEC Region 8 Headquarters 6274 E Avon-Lima Rd Avon, NY 14414 (585)226-2466 DEP.R8@dec.ny.gov
After reading that the EPA funded the Town of Greece [via US Army Corps as interagency] desire to remake the character of Braddock Bay in the name of 'restoration,' I thought it time I state my feelings as a resident of Manitou Beach Rd.
Sandy Creek Ponds and Barrier Beach located in northern Oswego County
New York on eastern Lake Ontario
I just got back from the eastern Lake Ontario area - Sandy Creek ponds north and south, an area that was once very popular -- especially when fishing was king in the 1940s-50s. Today it feels like a jumble of vintage trailers, rickety cottages and mishmash shoreline development so very very different from Monroe County. The shoreline of northern Oswego County could have been a pristine barrier beach [almost as great as Fire Island] region but today it is a hodgepodge of no-zoning/planning and a zillion docks on every inch of marshland, creek and river. I see Southpoint Marina on the south end of Irondequoit Bay working to restore a marina. That's exactly what the Town of the Greece wants to do to the Braddock Bay Marina -- not to mention the marina project at the Rochester Harbor. That's what all this ruse about 'restoration' is about -- a way to keep a channel dredged to build back the boating in the area. Too little too late is the DEC's Natural Heritage Designation for Eastern Lake Ontario. When I see the big mess the eastern shoreline of Lake Ontario is in Jefferson County, I am actually shocked. Take the oldest and smallest cottage on Edgemere Drive and multiply that by 10,000 - that's the ruin of the shoreline. I wish the US Army Corps would take the concrete headland away from the project, but I don't think that will happen. I envision another engineered attempt to take a protected State Wildlife Management Area and turn it into a marina. Period. I think the Braddock Bay status as Audubon Important Bird Area and all the bird organizations, etc. should have had more effect on the decision-making process, but unfortunately the birders caved to the Town's wishes for reasons I can only surmise -- funds to remove invasives and public relations for them. I believe that much of the funding for 'restoration' is in the name of preventing shoreline erosion after the super-storm Sandy hit NYS. There are a lot of little cottages that are going in the water in the next 50 years. Let's see what occurs . . . . we don't have the last word. Water has the last say.
In the past decade, freshwater and sediment diverted from the Mississippi River have turned what once was an open bay into a thriving wetlands area. Local environmental groups have planted thousands of cypress trees, attempting to create a marsh that will help absorb storms that pass through.
Weenta Girmay for WWNO
In a lush green bayou a little southeast of New Orleans, John Lopez and Howard Callahan are cruising the waterways in an airboat under the hot Louisiana sun on a recent day.
It's an area known as Breton Basin, and Callahan is a local land manager who often helps researchers such as Lopez explore environmental changes in coastal wetlands. The pair head to a concrete and steel structure that separates the bayou from the nearby Mississippi River.
This is the Caernarvon river diversion. Built in 1991, it works like a faucet: When it's open, freshwater and sediment from the Mississippi River — usually hemmed in by the levee system — flow back into what was a dying swamp. Diversions such as this one are meant to free the river to do its original job as it nears the Gulf of Mexico: spread out sediment, create land and provide freshwater to local habitats.
In the past decade, thick, green vegetation has grown up around the diversion, and Lopez says that's a good thing.
"This is what Louisiana's supposed to be," he says. "Not a dying coast, but a living coast."
John Lopez, director of coastal sustainability for the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, looks out at the Caernarvon river diversion. The structure diverts freshwater from the Mississippi River into the Breton Basin, helping to restore a balance with saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico.
Weenta Girmay for WWNO
Now, 10 years after Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the Gulf Coast region, expanded efforts are underway to revitalize this "living coast," Louisiana's original storm protection system. State officials have earmarked billions of dollars to rebuild the marshes and wetlands that create a natural buffer against storms and floods.
Over the past century, man-made canals and natural storm surge pushed too much saltwater into the bayou, killing the swamp. Cypress trees and swamp grasses are what slow hurricanes down and absorb storm surge.
New Orleans is technically 80 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, but with a football field of coastal wetlands disappearing every half-hour, that distance is deceptive, says Kyle Graham, head of Louisiana's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.
"Our levee systems aren't designed to have the Gulf of Mexico lapping up against the outside. They're designed to have that amount of marsh, or a marsh-protected fringe in between them and the Gulf of Mexico," he says.
Graham oversees an ambitious plan — $50 billion over 50 years — to rebuild the coast. Compare that to the $14 billion spent since Hurricane Katrina to rebuild the man-made levee system that lines the Mississippi River and protects the city of New Orleans and other areas along the river.
The coastal rebuilding plan prescribes bigger and deeper diversions than Caernarvon, according to the Environmental Defense Fund's Natalie Peyronnin, who helped draft the idea. The alternative — digging up sediment, transporting it and manufacturing land — is too expensive, she says.
"We know the river built the wetlands; we do know that. And we know that the river can rebuild wetlands, and they can rebuild the system on a scale that we can't mechanically do with just dredging," Peyronnin says.
Local land manager Howard Callahan navigates his airboat, which helps local environmental groups get deep into the Breton Basin area to investigate the impact of the Caernarvon river diversion.
Weenta Girmay for WWNO
Not everybody wants diversions. George Ricks is one of several sport fishermen worried about the effects of river diversions. More freshwater and less saltwater will upset the balance of local habitats that nurture fish, shrimp, oysters and more.
"When you look at the economic impact of losing our fisheries, and our seafood industries, and our restaurant businesses, because of a lack of seafood, it's not that economically feasible to have diversions instead of dredging," Ricks says.
But diversion advocates say the Gulf of Mexico will eventually push back and restore the brackish water balance. And with Louisiana's coast rapidly disappearing, there are bigger issues at hand, says Peyronnin of the Environmental Defense Fund.
"If we don't use the river to build land, and maintain this wonderful coast, then people are going to have to move away," she says.
Louisiana officials hope to begin construction of multiple river diversions in the next few years. They believe this approach will give Louisiana not just its coast back, but its best chance at surviving the next big hurricane.
NOAA Habitat Conservation: Open Rivers Initiative
