Niskayuna’s water plant was in danger as the Mohawk River rose during Tropical Storm Irene, but town employees devised a plan to prevent damage.
Town officials started mobilizing town employees around 6 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 28, after initial reports came in on possible flood levels following heavy rain. There were six dump trucks, front-end loaders, excavator and bulldozers at the town’s water plant working into the night. There was another crew stationed north of plant at the town landfill with an excavator and a front-end loader to gather dirt for the circular barrier.
“Initial reports we were getting was it was going to be 7 to 8 feet above the 100-year flood, which was over those windows (four inches above),” said Supervisor Joe Landry. “There is no way we could have built a berm as high as that building … we were able to accommodate the modified numbers.”
The 100-year flood is a way to rate the probability of a flood reaching a certain level, which is once every 100 years. Although, this doesn’t mean the flood level can’t be reached more than once in 100 years.
Town employees worked long hours, maxing out at 18 hours, said Matt Yetto, a civil engineer for the town. Highway Department employees teamed up with Water and Sewer Department employees to prevent flood damage.
“At one point we had everyone in the Water and Sewer Department working either at (the water plant) or preventing flooding in the sewer system,” said Yetto.
The berm around the plant took around 15 hours to build after Superintendent of the Water and Sewer Department Richard Pollock designed the plans.
“At one point when we were doing the sandbags you looked and you just saw a sea of green, everyone was wearing a green shirt,” said Yetto. “Everything seemed to go very smoothly and well organized.”
Councilwoman Denise Murphy McGraw said she was impressed with the dedication of employees during the storm.
“What was just amazing was the cooperation between the two departments and the selflessness of the guys that were willing to work and do anything,” said McGraw. “You just heard them keep saying, ‘What do you need?’”
Yetto said at one point the trucks were coming in similar to a military operation and overall it was very effective and efficient. When one truck was emptied the material another truck would be close behind. Around 150 truckload of material was used to build the plant.
“It just had to get done,” said McGraw.
She also described what it was like to be at the plant during the flooding.
“The thing that was most striking about it is it was waves crashing,” Councilwoman Denise Murphy McGraw said. “The noise, it was just roaring, and you didn’t realize what it was at first, but then it dawned on you and it was just this roaring that never stopped for hours on end.”
Matt Yetto said the roaring water was a good motivation to get the berm done.
“You had the roaring, you had the wind blowing and trees cracking, it kept everybody awake,” Landry said.
Yetto said there was little damage to the property and there is no long-term damage.
“We have to do some clean up, but we can handle that,” Yetto said.
During the crest of the storm, said Landry, power was turned off at the water plant for a couple hours as a precaution and started using water reserves. There is about 2.5 million gallons of water stored, which can last the entire town a day and a half, said Landry.
“Really, there was no interruption of any service to the residents in Niskayuna,” said Landry. “We had already pumped so much into the reserve that we were safe.”
