Supervisor Bill Reilich announced today that the Town has completed the installation of a flood control earthen berm along the shoreline of Round Pond, near Edgemere Drive in the Town of Greece. The berm was constructed using Town work crews in response to last year’s flooding event when the level of Round Pond rose along with Lake Ontario, causing several homes and the nearby section of Edgemere Drive to be flooded for several months.
“This location saw some of the worst flooding in the Town of Greece last year due to the extremely high lake level” stated Supervisor Reilich. “Although our Public Works crews worked tirelessly around the clock using multiple pumps to try and keep the road clear of water, the amount of lake water flooding this area was simply too excessive. I knew we needed a permanent solution to protect our residents”.
Lake Ontario and Round Pond sit in close proximity to each other with homes located in between and on both sides of the road. As the lake and pond levels rose, the low topography in the area resulted in consistent flooding as pond water overflowed the pond bank and surged back through the storm sewers. Facing the possibility of another flooding event in 2018, Supervisor Reilich immediately reviewed several possible solutions and determined that a permanent earthen berm structure and storm sewer shut off valves should be built to protect the homes and the road.
This structure is 420 feet long and 2.5 feet high with a top elevation level of 250 feet. At its peak, the lake level rose to just over 249 feet last year. Shut-off valves installed near the berm can be closed to prevent the pond water from backing up through the storm sewer pipes that drain into Round Pond and cause flooding in the road. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the current lake level of Lake Ontario is reported at approximately 245 feet and slightly below its long term average for the month of October.
“Never before in the history of the Town of Greece have we seen this level of flooding for such an extended period of time and I certainly hope it doesn’t happen again” Reilich added. “However, this berm structure and the shut-off valves installed here and in numerous critical locations along our shoreline are proactive measures we took to better protect our residents who live near the lake, Braddock’s Bay, and our four major ponds”.
In response to last year’s flooding, the Town of Greece distributed over 250,000 sandbags to shoreline residents, managed forty-one pumps 24-hours/day, 7 days/week to keep flooded roads clear, maintained our thirteen sanitary sewer pump stations that service 1,500 homes to prevent sewer backups, and replaced a damaged sanitary sewer forcemain with a new pipe with increased capacity.