The village of Mamaroneck’s $70-plus million federal flood mitigation project is now on hold after an objection by the New York Department of State.
As of this month, the state Department has slammed the brakes on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-led project until more information is provided. Of concern is the project’s impact on coastal zones, and according to one village representative, if the Army Corps doesn’t address those concerns, the project is likely to fall by the wayside.
“From what I understand, if the project fails to meet the policies of the Department of State, it will not move forward,” said Cindy Goldstein, chairwoman of the village Harbor Coastal Zone Management Commission, a group tasked with evaluating the plan’s adherence to local environmental guidelines. The harbor commission offered its recommendation to the state Department that the flood plan was inconsistent with Mamaroneck’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Program, LWRP, a set of guidelines on how to best develop Mamaroneck’s coastal areas.
In a March 9 memo to the Army Corps, the state Department formally objected to a draft environmental impact statement which ruled that the flood mitigation plan would not have any environmental consequences.
As a result, according to the memo, the Army Corps will be required to submit a new consistency determination explaining how the project will adhere to the LWRP.
But while the harbor commission continues to push for further review, some in the village of Mamaroneck, including its mayor, are ready to sign off on the project.
Mayor Norman Rosenblum, a Republican, remains one of the plans staunchest proponents.
“This is so vital,” he said. “If there’s anything that I’ve ever done in my four terms as mayor, it’s making sure we get flood mitigation.”
Rosenblum, who has worked for nearly a decade securing the most recent proposal by the Army Corps, is worried that if the project falters now, there may not be another opportunity for the village to address flooding in the future.
“This is our best and final chance to have true flood mitigation in the village of Mamaroneck,” he said.
At stake, Rosenblum explained, is a chance to significantly reduce the level of flooding in the village and ameliorate the impact of floods like those seen in 2007 which caused $50 million in damage.
While the mayor described the state Department’s ruling as “reasonable,” adding that the organization is merely requesting more information, the harbor commission’s decision has evoked a different response.
“The [harbor commission] has their heads in the sand,” Rosenblum said. “They have personal agendas, they are anti-development, and they have no relationship or concept of flood mitigation in the village of Mamaroneck.”
Conversely, Clark Neuringer, a member of the harbor commission and a village of Mamaroneck resident, worries that the project may have dire consequences for the environment.
The current plan, he said, relies heavily on structural solutions like approximately 1.5 miles of retaining walls to be installed along the village coastline.
Such walls, he explained, due to their disruption of ecosystems and trees which provide shade can both destroy wildlife and increase temperatures; a sentiment echoed by Paul Rubin, a hydrologist hired by the village to independently evaluate the project.
In Rubin’s report, submitted to the village on March 20, the hydrologist chides the Army Corps plan for its intrusiveness.
“The project design will degrade aquatic ecosystems, wildlife habitat, water quality, and fishing and recreational opportunities while diminishing river access, enjoyment, and pride in… a protected and preserved Village natural resource,” Rubin states.
Neuringer told the Review that one of his biggest goals in speaking out against the Army Corps project is to alert people that there are alternatives to its current set of solutions.
“The current proposal by the Army Corps isn’t the only solution,” he said. “Based on certain factors, the Army Corps chose this project… It has the most cost-benefit.”
According to a statement from the Army Corps, the organization is still in coordination with New York state about the project’s potential impacts and a final consistency review won’t be submitted to the Department of State until the end of 2016.
