Breached beaver dam gushes water from 40-acre pond - NEWS10 ABC

Breached beaver dam gushes water from 40-acre pond

STEPHENTOWN, N.Y. ( News10)-A breached beaver dam resulted in rushing water being released from a pond, washing out a Rensselaer County roadway and damaging one home in the rural community of Stephentown, New York. The Stephentown fire chief tells News10 that they received a call for service around 6am Monday morning regarding severe flooding on Garfield Road.

“It’s a lot of water to come off the top of the hill, and across the road here,” said Dave Anthony, Highway Superintendent for Rensselaer County. Anthony told News10’s Anya Tucker that the rushing water came from a pond high on a hill above the roadway when tons of water was released after a beaver dam on the pond breached. The beavers had apparently built their own 8-foot dam against a man made one that typically has water flowing into the nearby Kinderhook creek at a trickle.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation tells News10 that DEC Emergency Management employees are investigating the “failure of a beaver dam built upstream of the former William Miaski Dam on Garfield Road.” The dam is on private property and a DEC spokesperson says they are reaching out the property owner and that officials with “DEC and the county Public Safety and Highway Department are at the location monitoring the situation.” The same spokesperson added that there is no threat to public safety at this time.

Rensselaer County Legislator Bruce Patire says he spoke with the impacted homeowner. “Pieces of pavement went on the front of the door, so it diverted it a little, so as not to wash the house away. [The water] filled up his basement, and basically leveled his property out back down to the Kinderhook,” said Patire.

The New York State Department of Conservation was also on scene, but officials with the agency could not say if recent heavy rains contributed to the intensity of the breach. As the water recedes, Anthony says his crew is working to repair the roadway and that he hopes to open at least one lane to traffic tonight. “By tonight hopefully we will have it. If not, it will be closed until tomorrow and then we will be back in the morning to open.” Rensselaer County officials tell Anya they are examining preventative measures to keep the same issue from happening again.