01/08/2024
OUR LATEST UPDATE: When word got out in 2019 that the private owners of the Lake Jefferson Dam could no longer afford to repair it, a grassroots movement through Facebook became the Lake Jeff Conservation Association, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Our purpose was to save the lake by raising money to rehabilitate the dam.
Then came the revelation that the very design of the nearly 100-year-old dam (which is a “High Hazard Class C” dam because Jeffersonville and Kohlertown lie directly beneath it), does not comply with the safety regulations of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. (FERC oversees the dam because it used to generate hydroelectric power.) The fact is, in the face of increasingly severe storms predicted in our region, the current dam no longer appears to mitigate flooding. Consider, for example, the flash flood in 2014 that threatened lives in Jeffersonville and cost two million dollars in damage. Only by building a new dam with a different “labyrinth” spillway design, at a cost of at least two million dollars, could flooding be mitigated for sure and important safety regs be met.
An October 2010 report titled “Hydrologic and Hydraulic Models East Branch Callicoon Creek and Tributaries, Sullivan County, NY” by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suggests that there is (or could be) an interconnected role of dams, including the Lake Jefferson Dam, in flood control in the Callicoon Creek watershed.
Meanwhile, the dam continues to deteriorate and put people and property downstream at risk.
Currently, the owners of the dam, who bear legal responsibility for it, are working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Administration and a nonprofit organization in the public interest called American Rivers to remove the dam and restore the flow of the Callicoon Creek, all at public expense. A condition of public-expense removal is that the waterway must remain free-flowing in perpetuity. In other words, there must never be another dam built on the site.
This in-perpetuity provision concerns the Village of Jeffersonville Board of Trustees and the Town of Delaware Board, which passed resolutions last year for a comprehensive hydrology study before dam removal to determine if an open waterway would subject Jeffersonville and Kohlertown to the physical dangers and economic risks of chronic flooding forever. Historical accounts of regular flooding from before the dam was built suggest that it might.
An important step in the process of dam removal is the surrender to FERC, by the dam owners, of their “exemption” (permit) to make hydropower. With this surrender, FERC would release oversight of the dam to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Dam Safety Division, which intends to work with the USFWS and American Rivers to remove the dam.
In the reckoning of the LJCA, there are no villains in this story, only concerned and well-intentioned parties who, in the end, confront a lack of money to replace the dam and are acting as responsibly as they can.
Public Comments Accepted until January 19
Until January 19, you can share your thoughts with FERC about whether the owners of the dam should be allowed to surrender their exemption. Here’s how. Please reference the dam by name and also by FERC project and file # -- P- 6055-006, P-6055-007, and P-6055-008 -- and submit your remarks according to FERC’s instructions:
FERC “strongly encourages electronic filing. Please file comments, motions to intervene, and protests using the Commission’s eFiling system at http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/efiling.asp. Commenters can submit brief comments up to 6,000 characters, without prior registration, using the eComment system at http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/ecomment.asp. You must include your name and contact information at the end of your comments. For assistance, please contact FERC Online Support at [email protected], (866) 208-3676 (toll free), or (202) 502-8659 (TTY). In lieu of electronic filing, you may submit a paper copy. Submissions sent via the U.S. Postal Service must be addressed to: Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE, Room 1A, Washington, DC 20426. Submissions sent via any other carrier must be addressed to: Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 12225 Wilkins Avenue, Rockville, Maryland 20852. The first page of any filing should include the docket number P-6055-008. Comments emailed to Commission staff are not considered part of the Commission record."
