According to village of Mamaroneck officials, a multimillion dollar flood mitigation plan will enter into the final stages before construction after calls from federal and state lawmakers to speed up the review process.
A village press release states that last month, a chief engineer in charge of overseeing the flood mitigation plans’ study phase signed off on the proposal and submitted the document for final approval by Congress.
“Getting this report completed and submitted to Congress represents a significant step in the process,” said Thomas Asbery, Army Corps New York district colonel, in a statement.
A decision to send the project forward for its final pre-construction approvals comes on the heels of calls from a slew of federal lawmakers urging for faster approval.
On Dec. 7, 2017—a week before the plan’s most recent approval—U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and New York Rep. Eliot Engel, all Democrats, sent a letter calling for “immediate review” of the Army Corps study.
“Making sure the village of Mamaroneck is protected from future flooding is critical for public safety and property preservation of homes and businesses,” Schumer said. “Floods have hammered this area before and we can’t wait another year before we implement a better flood protection plan for the whole community, which is why we need Army Corps to promptly review and approve this plan.”
Specifically, the flood mitigation plan, which has been in the works since 2007, would deepen and widen portions of the Mamaroneck and Sheldrake rivers in addition to constructing 7,500 feet of concrete retaining wall to reduce the effects of large scale floods—the likes of which have caused millions of dollars in damage throughout the past two decades.
Of the plan’s $80 million price tag, the village would foot $8 million to $10 million while the rest of the cost will be split between the state, federal and county governments. While the federal government would foot 65 percent of the bill, the remaining 35 percent would be shared between the state, Westchester County and village of Mamaroneck.
This iteration of a flood mitigation plan marks a second-coming of a previous flood mitigation effort dating back to the 1980s when a similar proposal from the Army Corps was sidelined due to lack of support from non-federal partners.
According to the Army Corps initial study, the plan could decrease first-floor flooding in the village’s flood plain by 86 percent, and could significantly minimize the impact of storms like those seen in 2007, which incurred a total of $50 million in damage.
