Phase II of Flooding Plan to Commence this Month

By Erica Jackson

Due to the rising water table, nearly 500 Smithtown home basements were damaged by water this past year. The problem, say officials, is worse than ever before.  That’s why they have taken action to remedy the problem.

Later this month, the Town of Smithtown is set to commence Phase II of a three, possibly four part strategy to lower the local water table by dredging the Nissequogue River.

“This is not going to solve everybody’s basement from flooding,” said Ted Sanford, head of the Town of Smithtown’s engineering department, “but it will decrease the severity and frequency.” He continued, “There still will be some people that will have to pump.”

According to Sanford, basement flooding has long been a problem for numerous residents, but the problem worsened this past winter and spring after Mother Nature whipped up four storms dumping 16 inches of rain and 3 inches of snow melt. That equated to much more H2O than the water table can handle.  The result: major flooding.

After receiving complaints from residents, Federal officials, as well as those from the town, county and state banned together to find funding to lower the water table by dredging four hundred linear feet of the Nissequogue River.

“We want to lower the river by 15 inches, which will bring the river back to the level it was in the 1950s,” said Sanford. 

To accomplish that, he said, 50 years of accumulated sentiment needs to be removed.  

To put that amount into perspective, Sanford said when complete, over 1,000 cubic yards of silt will have been removed. That’s enough sediment to fill more than 50 roll-off trucks.

To date, Sanford said the town, via hired contracting company, Terry Materials and Contracting of Riverhead, has already completed Phase I of the project. That portion of the project included the dredging of 1,200 linear feet of the river as it runs north of Route 347. The cost: $317,000.  

Phase II, however, said Sanford is expected to cost nearly a half-a-million dollars as it will include the dredging of 2,800 feet of the river as it runs south of Route 347.

To fund Phase I and II of the project, Sanford said the town has applied and is expected to receive for funding via Suffolk County’s water protection program.  Funding for that program is realized though the county’s 1/4 percent tax.

The program, explained Sanford funds projects that will improve water quality, which Sanford said the Nissequogue River dredging will do. He said, “by removing the silt we are lowering the water table so cesspools function.”  Also, he said, “We are also restoring the aquatic habitat of the river.”

It is expected, said Sanford, that work will begin on Phase II sometime after July 15 and be completed by a Department of Environmental Conservation deadline of October 1.  However, before work can commence, the town first needs to obtain a Department of Environmental Conservation permit to do the work.

That permit will be forthcoming, said Aphrodite Montalvo, spokeswoman for the DEC.  “We don’t anticipate there will be any problems with the permit,” she said.

Since dredging alone will not settle the entire flooding issue, Phase III will tackle the drainage piping that goes into the stream.  Using a $1.5 million matching grant obtained by Congressman Tim Bishop, town highway department workers will install a new piping system.   The current piping system, said Sanford was put in place in the 1960s and has long since rotted.  

“The money will go a lot further, if we use our own labor,” said Sanford, who noted that the town’s matching portion of the grant will be about $300,000.

Phase III will be designed this winter, and installed sometime in 2011, said Sanford.

In the meantime, the town is looking into obtaining Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding to help homeowners fill-in their basements in severe flooding cases.  Currently, homeowners have access to small business administration loans, however, they would need to qualify and many do not.  

Additionally, the town’s assessor’s office is offering tax deductions to residents who can no longer utilize their basements due to flooding.  Sanford said, residents can file with the assessor's office though a tax grievance process.

To do its part, the county is looking to dredge Miller’s Pond on Maple Avenue, which will also help in lowering the water table.  

According to Legislator John Kennedy of Smithtown, who has been at the forefront of the issue, holding informational meetings for concerned residents, the county is exploring funding options for the project.  

While Millers Pond is a 110-year-old man-made body of water, Legislator Kennedy said it is part of the Nissequogue Waterway, which is the only river on Long Island that flows in a northerly direction.  

“We can’t say we will ever eliminate the flooding problem,” said Kennedy, but if we do routine maintenance, we will substantially improve the flooding and our ground water quality.”