The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s latest episode of “DEC Does What?!” podcast discusses the department’s oversight of more than 6,000 regulated dams across New York State. [Read more…] about New York’s Dams, Dam Removals & DEC
Adirondack Dams
Feeding the Erie Canal: Rome Summit Level Reservoirs
All canals are a series of ponds, at different water stages, or elevations. These elevation changes are transitioned by locks, with the area between the locks being of any length, and referred to as a level. Simply put, canal transport is similar to a set of stairs, with the levels being the tread, and the locks the riser. The highest level of any canal is known as the summit level.
As water flows with any lock movement, it is necessary to constantly re-supply the canal, and by feeding the replacement water to the summit level, the entire canal may be supplied. The original Erie Canal, statewide from Albany to Buffalo, had three summit levels; Lake Erie, Jordan and Rome. [Read more…] about Feeding the Erie Canal: Rome Summit Level Reservoirs
Twitchell’s Troubled Waters: Adirondack Water Quality History
As heir to a log cabin in the Adirondacks, I have caught myself imagining the mile-high glacier that carved out its lake and melted to fill it with crystal pure water. The scrape marks on outcrops of stone here and there in the forest remain as testimony to that primeval event.
Big Moose’s Twitchell Lake became host to a native population of brook trout that sportsmen in the 1860s and following decades measured by the pound rather than the inch. But my summers in the 1950s bring up a very different image, water unfit to drink or even swim in, laced with dangerous e. Coli bacteria and a dumping ground for used-up appliances. This essay will tell the story of “troubled waters” and one lake community’s painstaking quest for good water quality. [Read more…] about Twitchell’s Troubled Waters: Adirondack Water Quality History
Better DEC Oversight of Dams Recommended To Prevent Failures
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) should improve oversight and enforcement of compliance with the state’s dam safety regulations to guard against potential costly and life-threatening failures, according to an audit released by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.
“Dam failures are rare in New York, and we want to keep it that way,” DiNapoli said. [Read more…] about Better DEC Oversight of Dams Recommended To Prevent Failures
43rd Edition of Adirondack State of the Park Report Issued
The 43rd Edition of Adirondack Council’s State of the Park Report has been released October 8, 2024.
The Report is the Adirondack Council’s comprehensive annual assessment of environmental conditions, social issues and government actions for the largest park in the contiguous United States. Its current 43 editions serve as an almanac of important events and decisions in the Adirondacks, affecting generations of New York residents. [Read more…] about 43rd Edition of Adirondack State of the Park Report Issued
John Apperson’s Battle To Protect Lake George’s Islands
Before Adirondack conservation leader Paul Schaefer began to organize his coalitions and, after a titanic ten year struggle, finally defeat through public referendum proposed big dams on the South Branch of the Moose River and elsewhere (1945-1955), Paul’s mentor John S. Apperson (often known as Appy) was waging another, longer, but less well known struggle concerning an actual, late 19th wooden and early 20th century concrete dam at the outlet of Lake George, built to power pulp, paper, and other mills in Ticonderoga, and to float logs down to those mills. [Read more…] about John Apperson’s Battle To Protect Lake George’s Islands
Naming the Great Sacandaga Lake
In April of 1930, the gates of the Conklingville Dam closed for the first time, beginning the process of flooding 27 miles of the Sacandaga Valley to create a new body of water that would provide both recreation and power to the region.
While it was already being called Sacandaga Reservoir, there was another name being considered, one that would honor the chief engineer of the project, forty-five-year-old Edward Haynes Sargent. [Read more…] about Naming the Great Sacandaga Lake
Naturally Reproducing Atlantic Salmon Returning to the Lake Champlain Basin
In 2019, for only the third time in 150 years, scientists found wild Atlantic salmon fry in the Boquet River, a tributary of Lake Champlain in Essex County. The long-term effort to restore self-sustaining, naturally reproduced populations of salmon to the Lake Champlain basin appears to be on the verge of success. [Read more…] about Naturally Reproducing Atlantic Salmon Returning to the Lake Champlain Basin
Historic Saranac River Dam Removal Projects Underway
Fish in the Saranac River are about to experience some new-found freedom. Deconstruction to remove the remnants of the Indian Rapids Dam and Frendenburgh Falls Dam in Plattsburgh is just about complete, which means fish will now be able to move more freely on that stretch of river. [Read more…] about Historic Saranac River Dam Removal Projects Underway
Hydro Power Initiative Launched in Glens Falls, NY
A new initiative is bringing Glens Falls residents and businesses the option to choose clean, locally-sourced electricity, with the City of Glens Falls as lead subscriber. The Glens Falls Community Hydro Project is a collaboration between the City of Glens Falls, Boralex, and Northern Power & Light. [Read more…] about Hydro Power Initiative Launched in Glens Falls, NY
Boquet River Farm Easement Protects Salmon Fishery
294 acres of farmland with more than two miles of natural forest along the Boquet River and associated tributaries, have been brought under a permanent conservation easement in a deal between the Adirondack Land Trust and the landowners, the Gillilland family.
The Boquet River, a major tributary of Lake Champlain that drops 2,700 feet over its 47-mile course from the Adirondack High Peaks to the lake, provides critical spawning habitat for salmon and other native fish. [Read more…] about Boquet River Farm Easement Protects Salmon Fishery
Cracked: The Future of Dams in a Hot, Chaotic World
Throughout history, humans have dammed rivers at the cost of wild fish, Indigenous people, forested land, and healthy watersheds. Adding to the havoc of today’s climate-change-induced weather extremes and water shortages, science says there’s no future for the business of dam-building.
A new book offers hope for the dam removal movement and how it will contribute to the mitigation of the climate crisis: when we free the rivers, watersheds are restored and Earth heals itself. In Cracked: The Future of Dams in a Hot, Chaotic World (Patagonia, 2023) author Steven Hawley, an Oregon-based environmental journalist and documentary filmmaker, delivers the full, ugly truth about dams and offers a pathway toward freeing our rivers. [Read more…] about Cracked: The Future of Dams in a Hot, Chaotic World
Adirondack Logging History: Wood’s Lake & Beaver River Stations
After Hudson River logging sharply declined by 1905, the Adirondack railroad line known as the Mohawk & Malone kept NYS lumber companies in business for at least another twelve years. A big part of this was due to logging north of Big Moose, shown on this New York Central & Hudson River railroad map, with eight station stops northward toward Tupper Lake (shown at left), three of them as junctions for logging railroads — Wood’s Lake, Brandreth, and Nehasane.
Beaver River Station was shifting from logging to tourism. Little Rapids was a flag stop, Keepawa unlisted in an 1895 train schedule. This article will describe the logging history of Wood’s Lake and Beaver River stations, beginning with a new lumbering operation just north of Big Moose. [Read more…] about Adirondack Logging History: Wood’s Lake & Beaver River Stations
Rehabilitation of Lows Lake Lower Dam Has Begun
The gate on the access road leading to the Bog River Dam, also known as Lows Lake Lower Dam, in the town of Piercefield, St. Lawrence County, closed December 6th, to allow for construction to maintain the Adirondack dam. [Read more…] about Rehabilitation of Lows Lake Lower Dam Has Begun
Lows Lower Dam Rehabilitation Will Close Road
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced the gate on the access road leading to the Bog River Dam, also known as Lows Lower Dam, will be closed starting December 6th, to allow for construction to maintain the dam, located on the Bog River near Tupper Lake, NY in the Adirondack Park. [Read more…] about Lows Lower Dam Rehabilitation Will Close Road
The 1903 Hudson River Spier Falls Dam Disaster
In the spring of 1903, more than a thousand men were at work on the final stages of the Spier Falls hydroelectric project on the Hudson River near Glens Falls.
A large number of skilled Italian masons and stoneworkers were housed in a shantytown on the Warren County (north) side of the river.
Most of the remaining work was on the Saratoga County (south) side, which they accessed by a temporary bridge. But the company feared that the high waters of springtime had made the bridge unsafe. To avert a potential catastrophe, they destroyed it with dynamite. [Read more…] about The 1903 Hudson River Spier Falls Dam Disaster
At Spier Falls Immigrants Built America, Or Died Trying
Adirondack history is naturally rife with river-related stories — wildly successful fishing trips, damaging floods, wilderness exploration, and dam construction.
Rivers were the lifeblood of development: settlements sprang up along waterways, where partial diversion of streams provided the wheel-turning power necessary to many industries. But freshets were so common and destructive that dams were introduced as flood-control measures, and then for hydropower as the electrification of society unfolded. [Read more…] about At Spier Falls Immigrants Built America, Or Died Trying
The 10 Deadliest Accidents in the Adirondack Region
Some of tragic accidents have occurred in the Adirondack region.
Here is a list of the ten believed to have been among the deadliest: [Read more…] about The 10 Deadliest Accidents in the Adirondack Region
Plans To Dam The Upper Hudson Would Have Been Catastrophic
On almost every stream, pond or lake in the Adirondacks there is still evidence of lumberman’s dams and lumbering operations. In the mid-to-late 1960s however, there was a controversial plan to dam the Upper Hudson River in order to supply water and hydro-electric power to the parched, urban, metropolitan area of New York City.
In the early 1960s there had been a severe drought along the entire northeastern seaboard. One of New York City’s answers to the drought problem was to tap the Upper Hudson to supply its seemingly unquenchable need for water. [Read more…] about Plans To Dam The Upper Hudson Would Have Been Catastrophic
The End of Arbitrary Powers to Dam Adirondack Rivers
The State Legislature has just adjourned, but on a good many nights this past month I grew sleepy watching legislative TV or legislative proceedings on the internet. For the non-debate pieces of legislation, meaning when the legislative majority is not allowing minority debate on bills, the viewer is treated to the following exchanges in a monotone, one after the other:
The speaker or his representative, or the Senate president or her representative: “The clerk will read the bill.” The clerk: “a bill to” …whatever it does. The speaker or his representative: “The clerk will read the final section.” The clerk: “this act shall take effect immediately.” The speaker, president or their representative: “The vote: 63 in favor. The bill is passed.” All of that has taken less than ten seconds. Next. [Read more…] about The End of Arbitrary Powers to Dam Adirondack Rivers