DEC To Explain Breach Reasons
Plans to breach the Ridgewood Reservoir’s walls in order to “decommission” it as a state-recognized dam will be the focus of a public hearing in Glendale scheduled for this Monday night, June 30, the Times Newsweekly learned.
According to Community Board 5 District Manager Gary Giordano, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the city’s Parks Department will hold the meeting at 7 p.m. this Monday at St. Pancras Pfeifer Hall, located at the corner of Myrtle Avenue and 68th Street.
Representatives of the DEC and Parks Department will review and field questions and comments on a proposal to create openings in the walls separating the reservoir’s three basins in order to declassify the structure as a dam.
Taken completely out of the city’s water system in 1989, the drained Ridgewood Reservoir became naturally reforested over the last 25 years. The center basin is said to contain a shallow pond about 5′- deep, and the two surrounding basins are full of plant and animal life.
Last year, the city’s Parks Department announced a plan to breach the reservoir walls pursuant to a request by the DEC to decommission the structure, which is classified as a “high-class hazard C dam.” Reportedly, the DEC mandates that all dams in the state be fortified to modern standards or, if no longer used to retain significant amounts of water, breached.
As explained by Parks Department officials during a February 2013 meeting of Board 5’s Parks Committee, the goal is to ensure that the Ridgewood Reservoir holds no more than six feet of water at any time.
Reportedly, the Parks Department plan would install small, pre-cast culverts between the basins and an 11′-wide culvert between the wall of the westernmost basin and nearby Vermont Place.
To accomplish this task, it was noted, the Parks Department would be required to build a path for construction vehicles through the basin.
Several Parks Committee members and local conservationists, however, objected to the plan, as they claim it would endanger the natural ecology which developed in the reservoir basins over the last quartercentury. The larger culvert on Vermont Place proved to be a sticking point, as opponents claim it would inadvertently grant vandals and trespassers access into the westernmost basin.
Board 5 eventually voted in March 2013 to recommend approval of the decommissioning plan, but attached its grievances to its recommendation.
During the June 30 meeting, the DEC will also address the status of its inquiry into declaring all or part of the reservoir as a public wetland.
For more information on Monday’s meeting, call Board 5’s Glendale office at 1-718-366-1834.
Some parking is available in the school lot adjacent to Pfeifer Hall (enter through driveway on 68th Street). The Q55 bus stops near the school on Myrtle Avenue.
