Congressman Maloney Tours Lake Carmel Dam
Kathy Doherty and John Watson, an engineer for Insite Engineering.
Almost 25 percent of the high-hazard dams within New York State fall with Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney’s Congressional District. With severe storms hitting the region at an unprecedented rate, the congressman want to ensure the safety of his constituents who live near these dams.
A high hazard dam failure might cause widespread damage, with loss of life and major economic impacts likely.
On Thursday, April 4 Maloney joined Kent Town Supervisor Kathy Doherty and Insite engineer John Watson for a tour of Lake Carmel Dam, one of the high-hazard dams in Putnam County.
“Lake Carmel is a class C dam- the highest hazardous class of all of the dams,” said Watson. “If this dam goes, loss of life is expected.”
Watson and Doherty explained that there are currently four issues of concern with the dam- the gate valve house, a crack in the cap, stream bank erosion and the concrete is spawled.
“What kind of warning would you get if one of these things were to fail?” Asked Maloney.
Watson said that there would be not warning ahead of time.
Maloney will be introducing the Dam Safety Act of 2013 to support dam safety programs in states like New York. It would require routing inspections on the dams to ensure there soundness.
Maloney hopes that federal money could be available to help once problems have been identified.
“When we had to do similar repairs in between 1993 and 1996 it cost the park district $200,000,” said Doherty.
New York has 403 high hazard dams with nearly 100 of these high hazard dams in Putnam, Westchester, Orange and Dutchess counties.
In 1984, the gate valve on Lake Carmel broke and the whole lake was drained.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.