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Cazenovia
Creek
- The
Buffalo News, Inc. 1/27/06
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The
Buffalo Nickel JAN/FEB 2006
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Popular Mechanics Magazine
2/06 (.pdf file) |
Union
City Contractors, Inc.
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Rochester Business
Journal 1/6/06
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Tar Creek
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Plaque
given to Union City Contractors, Inc.
(.pdf file) |
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Click image for more info on project
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Published on January 27, 2006
Author: Elmer Ploetz - NEWS STAFF
REPORTER
© The Buffalo News Inc.
The Cazenovia Creek flood
prevention project was originally
described as looking like concrete fingers
anchored to the bed of the creek.
It's more like thumbs. Large, dark-gray
thumbs.
The $4 million project designed by the
Army Corps of Engineers is nearly
complete. When it is finished, West Seneca
officials believe that it will stop the
flooding caused by ice jams that has
plagued the town for decades in
neighborhoods near Southgate Plaza and
downstream into South Buffalo.
"After the last round of problems, there
was no way we were not going to do
something," Town Supervisor Paul T. Clark
said Wednesday, referring to flooding. "It
took a lot of research. The Corps came up
with this, with a more reasonable cost, a
good design."
The design is unusual enough that it was
featured in an article in the February
issue of Popular Mechanics. It's one of
perhaps two such structures in the United
States.
Instead of building a flood-control dam,
the Corps came up with a design in which
the pillars should catch large chunks of
ice until they melt enough to slip through
and safely float downstream.
Construction started in the summer,
although it was delayed when heavy fall
rains repeatedly washed out the access
road.
The pillars, in a stretch near where the
east end of Main Street meets Seneca
Street, will combine with trees and
vegetation in the adjoining flood plain to
back up the ice and water in a bowl-shaped
uninhabited area.
The project is largely done. Contractors
have been placing rip-rap along the bank
and stabilizing it. Wrap-up landscaping
will take place in the spring.
"It's functioning, but we haven't had a
true test yet," said Mike Kerl, West
Seneca's disaster coordinator. "Mother
Nature's been cooperating pretty well."
Kerl said the pillars will hold up sheet
ice, while letting the "frazzle ice" --
the ice that's the consistency of a
Slurpee -- go through.
The last significant flooding in West
Seneca was in 2003, when the Parkdale and
Willowdale Drive areas were swamped.
Clark said the plan has been in the works
since 1998, going forward with the Corps
paying 75 percent of the cost, New York
State 12.5 percent and West Seneca 12.5
percent.
At one point, the state decided it would
not use eminent domain to gain flood
easements on properties near the creek, so
the town did.
"We really weren't crazy about using
eminent domain on our own residents," said
Clark, "but it wasn't like we were using
it for some developer. Most understood it
was for public safety."
Clark said the project could also
eventually reduce flood insurance costs to
homeowners in West Seneca and perhaps even
more so in South Buffalo, because the size
of Cazenovia Creek's flood plain should be
reduced.
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Rochester
Business Journal 1/6/06
Click images below
to see article |
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The Buffalo
Nickel
JAN/FEB
2006
Click
images below to see article |
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TAR CREEK |
An article on Tar Creek in Time
Magazine in April, 2004, outlined
the many challenges associated with
the Tar Creek Superfund site. Clearly,
no single agency has the authority to
address the many complex health risks,
water quality issues, flooding,
subsidence, ecological risks, and
tribal concerns over the 40 square
mile area. |
The largest Superfund site in the
nation, Tar Creek, Oklahoma, is now
the site of one of the Federal
Government's most massive
pollution cleanup efforts. With
special authorization and funding
secured by Sen. James Inhofe, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is
closing dangerous open mineshafts,
mitigating hazards to local
residents with land remediation
projects, and leading a multi-agency
team of experts to assess the
potential for subsidence in higher
population areas and along major
traffic corridors.
The lead, zinc, cadmium, and
iron contamination, health risks,
water quality issues, flooding and
subsidence at Tar Creek, a result of
nearly 100 years of hard rock
mining, is being addressed through a
partnership between the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, Environmental
Protection Agency, Department of
Interior, State of Oklahoma, and
tribal governments, all of whom were
encouraged by Sen. Jim Inhofe (OK)
to sign a Memorandum of
Understanding in May 2003. This led
to the Tar Creek and Lower Spring
River Watershed Management Plan, a
guide for a holistic solution for
all agencies working to solve the
complex environmental problems at
Tar Creek.
The highly dedicated Tar Creek
Project Delivery team continues to
be successful in meeting the
expedited project schedules and
goals communicated by Congress,
while maintaining close
relationships with our federal,
state, tribal, and public partners.
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Union City Contractors, Inc. worked
with the US ARMY of Corps Engineers to
fill a dangerous open mineshaft with a
concrete plug. |
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