Photo: Olena Malik / Moment / Getty Images
The village of Tannersville, New York, has been awarded $1.2 million in state funding to repair the dam at Reservoir No. 3, the community's primary drinking water source.
The grant, awarded on January 15, will fund critical upgrades to the aging infrastructure built in 1958. According to Mayor Lee McGunnigle, the project represents "the final piece for ensuring availability of a pristine water supply for our residents and businesses in the greater Tannersville community."
"We are in good shape," McGunnigle said. "This is one of the final pieces to really ensure tremendous water supplies for the constituents for generations to come."
The funding comes as part of a larger $208 million statewide investment through the Department of Environmental Conservation's Water Quality Improvement Project (WQIP) grant program, aimed at improving water quality and enhancing climate resiliency across New York.
Specific improvements will include repairing the dam's dike and long wall that prevents flooding, raising the dam's crest, and fixing the spillway that safely releases excess water. These repairs are mandated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
The 2023 Greene County Hazard Mitigation and Resiliency Plan classified the dam as having an "intermediate" hazard classification. If the dam were to fail, it could destroy several isolated homes, highways, and roads nearby, as well as the village's water plant, potentially affecting all water customers inside the village and approximately 200 homes outside it.
The village has been particularly vulnerable to flooding since Tropical Storm Ernesto in 2006, when a foot of rainwater covered Tannersville. The dam's earthen embankment has deteriorated over its 68-year lifespan due to severe tropical storms.
"Without this funding, this project would have been a devastating fiscal crisis to our community," McGunnigle noted. He also pointed out that the project "protects the headwaters of the New York City Watershed."
Governor Kathy Hochul emphasized the importance of such investments, stating, "Every New Yorker deserves clean water, which has been a top priority of mine since taking office. These grants continue our critical investments to update aging water infrastructure across the state."
The Tannersville project is one of five in the Capital Region receiving funding, part of more than $265 million recently announced by Governor Hochul to protect drinking water, improve climate resilience, and update aging water infrastructure statewide.
While celebrating the funding, Mayor McGunnigle acknowledged the work ahead: "Now, it's my duty to implement all these and I take it very seriously. Not only that you get the funding, but when local government has a shared partnership with the state, you have to be conscious to get these done within budget."
No timeline has been announced for when the dam repair project will be completed.