By Jason Emerson
Editor
Cazenovia village residents may have noticed for the past year that the canal connecting Cazenovia Lake and Chittenango Creek was practically dry — with the minimal water level killing fish and ruining any recreational activities. It turns out the lack of water was not from drought or any other natural causes, but because officials at the New York State Canal Corporation decided to permanently de-water the canal.
The effect of their decision was so impactful on the local ecology and community that one local resident starting asking why and, working with the mayor, convinced the Canal Corp to reverse its previous decision. The canal’s water levels are now back to previous levels, and a new understanding between the village and the Canal Corp has been kindled.
It all began last summer when village resident Jim Steinberg, who is also a member of the Cazenovia Preservation Foundation, noticed the water level in the canal was extremely low. “I checked and nobody knew why. I made some calls, but nobody seemed to have any answers,” Steinberg said. “I talked to [Mayor] Kurt [Wheeler] in fall; he agreed he was concerned about it, but nobody knew why it was happening.”
By this spring, it was clear the situation was not going to improve, so Steinberg contacted the chief engineer of the Canal Corp who said the state had decided last summer to de-water the canal — “which would basically leave the canal a mud flat,” Steinberg said.
It turns out that the decision was the result of the July 1, 2017 rainstorms that caused flooding and heavy damage to areas across the state. The Canal Corp was told by state officials to do risk assessments of its more than 100 dams across the state to look at structure integrity and potential liability if a dam failed and damaged structures downstream.
Their look at the Cazenovia lower dam on Mill Street showed them a canal whose water the state did not need — the canal once helped regulate the water levels on the Erie Canal — and that had structures immediately downstream from it, namely the Riverside Drive apartments and the Boy Scout lodge, that could be damaged in case of a flood.
“They determined the dam might fail and might affect properties downstream and, since they didn’t need the water, they would just open it up,” Steinberg said.
By opening up the sluice gates on the dam, it ensured the water level would not build up and therefore not create a potential for future flooding.
“I think they took the most conservative approach possible, saying, ‘If there is any risk at all we will reduce that risk,’ without stopping to think about use of waterway and its ecosystem,” said Wheeler. “They were purely looking at it from risk management perspective, not a community perspective. I don’t blame them; they had a huge job with limited resource and they prioritized those resources. But they should have just picked up the phone and asked us if there would be any impact.”
Both Steinberg and Wheeler contacted the Canal Corp on the issue, and organization officials agreed to come to Cazenovia for a discussion in July.
By July 4, one year after the dam was de-watered, Steinberg said the effect of the low water “was much, much worse. There were a lot of dead fish in the creek.” So he wrote another letter to the Canal Corp saying that the situation was causing “an environmental catastrophe” and something needed to be done.
This was on a Friday, Steinberg said. By 8 a.m. Monday morning, the Canal Corp had closed the dam and the canal filled back up with water, he said.
“We went a long time to get to a crisis but, to their credit, when we got there, they acted,” Steinberg said.
When Canal Corp officials came to Caz for their meeting, were showed the dam and explained the impact of the de-watering and the lack of real liability to the state, they agreed to bring the water level back to what it had been and keep it at that level for the foreseeable future.
“They admitted – sorry we should have communicated and gotten your input – all parties realized good communication between the Canal Corp and local municipalities is good for everybody,” Wheeler said. “It was a great meeting in that sense; we rekindled pathways of communication, everybody exchanged contacts, they explained why they lowered the water level, which we did not have that context. They then understood why it’s important for our community to maintain a higher water level in the canal for both environmental and recreational reasons, and they realized there is minimal risk in doing that. We all better understood each other’s motivations and everybody walked away friends. It was very cordial. They were extremely responsive throughout whole process.”
“It was a very productive meeting,” Steinberg agreed. “Our impulse galvanized everybody to both understand what happened and come to a better solution than what the Canal Corp came up with on its own.”
Canal Corp officials did not respond to calls for comment.
The de-watering of the canal also exposed another issue: the amount of litter and debris in the canal bed. The low water levels showed multiple tires, oil drums and other garbage sitting in the mud. Since the canal is state property, any cleanup would have to be either done by them or with their permission.
Wheeler and Steinberg broached the idea of allowing a cleanup and the Canal Corp did not object, they said. “We did talk about that, and they said if we put local resources on it they would be happy to allow it. That’s on our radar,” Wheeler said.
