Village of Wappingers Falls - Wappinger Lake Critical Environmental Area

Wappinger Lake Critical Environmental Area State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR)

Village of Wappingers Falls Towns of Poughkeepsie and Wappinger Dutchess County, New York PURPOSE To assist in the protection of an important natural resource, under the ownership or control of the Village of Wappingers Falls, the Village Planning Board has designated the Wappinger Lake as a Critical Environmental Area under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (6 NYCRR 617.14(g)). The effective date of the designation is June 27, 1998.

If your agency is proposing or approving an action that includes “When the well’s dry, property within or substantially contiguous to the Wappinger we know the worth of Lake area (as defined below in text and on the attached map) water.” and if the subject action must be reviewed under SEQR, your agency will be responsible for identification of any potential Benjamin Franklin impacts on the exceptional or unique characteristics of the Critical Environmental Area. If the Village Planning Board, Village Board of Trustees, and/or the Village Water Board is an Involved Agency on the subject action, we ask that your agency consider Coordinated Review for any Unlisted Actions that have the potential to affect the Critical Environmental Area. The Village Planning Board also requests that your agency designate the Planning Board, Village Board, and/or the Village Water Board as an Interested Agency under any SEQR action that affects the Critical Environmental Area, but which does not require an approval from such Boards.

The following report provides general information on the Critical Environmental Area, which may be used by your agency in evaluating actions subject to SEQR. Further information is available from the Village of Wappingers Falls Water Board or from the Dutchess County Water and Wastewater Authority.

LOCATION, OWNERSHIP, AND BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION Wappinger Lake is located in the lower Wappinger Creek basin approximately two miles above the Creek’s confluence with the Hudson River. The Wappinger Creek and its tributaries drain approximately 210 square miles or roughly one-quarter of Dutchess County.

The Village of Wappingers Falls is located in both the Town of Poughkeepsie and the Town of Wappinger, being divided by the Wappinger Creek and Wappinger Lake. Approximately

Wappinger Lake Critical Environmental Area

one-half (½) of Wappinger Lake is within the municipal boundaries of the Village and the remainder of the Lake is split between the Towns of Poughkeepsie and Wappinger. However, the Village of Wappingers Falls owns the entire lake bed, owns a parcel of land off West Main Street adjoining the Lake where the Village maintains a well field (that represents the Village’s primary source of water supply) and a park (Canale Field), owns a park and public access site on Liss Road and the Lake shore, and another park on Mesier Avenue and the Lake shore (Veterans Memorial Park). The area of Wappinger Lake that is under the ownership or control of the Village of Wappingers Falls, including the above noted parks and the Lake, is the area designated as a Critical Environmental Area. Boundaries are shown on the attached Figure 1 in shading and heavy outline.

SIGNIFICANCE A benefit or threat to human health [6 NYCRR 617.14(g)(1)(i)] In 1982, an engineering evaluation of the Village’s well fields was conducted by Ground Water Associates, Inc. of Arlington, Massachusetts. The well fields are located on an eight (8) acre site on the banks of the Wappinger Lake off West Main Street in the Village. The engineering evaluation examined well efficiency, aquifer coefficients, zone of influence, and well interference. The evaluation included step-drawdown tests and distance-drawdown data to evaluate well efficiency and zone of influence. After examining the resulting data, the engineers concluded that: “The [well water] levels indicate flow from the general direction of the lake, but they were 3 feet below the level of the lake indicating an indirect connection. Extrapolation of the aquifer gradients indicate that the water table intersected the lake surface 500 to 1,000 feet into the lake, which roughly corresponds to the location of the creek channel.” [emphasis added] In addition to the 1982 Ground Water Associates, Inc. evaluation of the Village wellfield, the Dutchess County Water and Wastewater Authority in 1993 identified Wappinger Lake as being located in a Zone I Aquifer Protection Area. Zone I areas contain “Permeable deposits directly overlying the aquifer. Contaminants can move directly downward to the underlying aquifer with little or no natural filtration by the soil because the water is moving too quickly.”

Portions of the Lake are also located within Authority identified Primary and Secondary Wellhead Protection Management Areas. The Authority defines a Primary Wellhead Protection Management Area (PMA) as “A delineation of that part of the aquifer which contributes water to the wellfield. It is normally bounded by geologic controls at the sides of a valley and bounded up- and down- valley by the hydrologic divides. Each PMA was uniquely tailored to fit the physical hydrogeologic conditions at each wellfield.” Secondary Wellhead Protection Management Areas (SMA) are defined by the Authority as “Those areas which, on the basis of topography, drain into the PMA.“

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Wappinger Lake Critical Environmental Area

The Village depends upon the subject wellfield as its primary source of water supply. There were 4,484 persons, estimated by the Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development, living within the Village in 1995 and virtually all of these persons depend upon the water supplied by the Village’s wellfield. The Village also supplies water to the Wappinger Central School District, and to users within the Towns of Poughkeepsie and Wappinger. Furthermore, the Village and both Towns have been projected to grow in population through the year 2015. Thus, a significant current and projected population depends upon clean, non-polluted water supplies that originate in the aquifer below Wappinger Lake.

According to the Dutchess County Natural Resources Inventory “In the lower basin the [Wappinger] Creek receives runoff from the County’s most intensely developed areas.” The Wappinger Creek flows through Wappinger Lake; any runoff that enters the Creek or the Lake directly has the potential to affect water quality of the Lake, the aquifer that intersects the Lake, and potentially the Village’s water supply.

A natural setting (e.g. fish and wildlife habitat, forest and vegetation, open space and areas of important aesthetic or scenic quality) [6 NYCRR 617.14(g)(1)(ii)] Wappinger Lake represents the only surface water body within the Village of Wappingers Falls. There are a number of reasons why the Village views it as a significant natural resource including: 1. The Village is currently preparing a Comprehensive Plan pursuant to New York State Village Law. In a Public Opinion Survey of Village residents for the proposed Plan, (Winter 1998), over 84 percent of the residents responding indicated that Wappinger Lake was an important natural resource to maintain and enhance.

2. Wappingers Falls’ current Village Development Plan recommends that “Full advantage should be taken of the unusual recreational and open space opportunity presented by Wappinger Lake in the midst of the Village.” The Village purchased the 121.5 acre Wappinger Lake in the early 1960’s with State funding assistance for the purpose of recreational use.

3. The Dutchess County Environmental Management Council (EMC), in its publication entitled Dutchess County Natural Resource Inventory, identified Wappinger Lake as one of 34 Significant Natural Areas in the County. According to the Inventory, “Significant natural areas are valued for their environmental importance and beauty, and . . . enhance environmental health and the quality of life in Dutchess County.” According to the Inventory, Wappinger Lake is important because it is a heavily used, publicly owned open space area which enhances the beauty of the area.

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Wappinger Lake Critical Environmental Area

Agricultural, social, cultural, historic, archaeological, recreational, or educational values [6 NYCRR 617.14(g)(1)(iii)] Wappinger Lake is noted for its open space and recreational resources. The Village owns and maintains three parks on its banks for use by the public as described above under “Location, Ownership, and Boundary Description”. The Lake contains Largemouth bass, Pickerel, Carp, and panfish and is heavily used by anglers; boat rentals are available on the Lake for anglers and pleasure boating and access is also available from the Village’s three parks and U.S. Route 9.

Wappinger Lake is located within an area designated, by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the New York State Education Department, as sensitive for archaeological sites on the New York State Site Inventory. Portions of the Lake are within 500 feet of a National Register of Historic Places Multiple Resource District.

An inherent ecological, geological or hydrological sensitivity to change that may be adversely affected by any change [6 NYCRR 617.14(g)(1)(iv)] As discussed above, the Dutchess County Water and Wastewater Authority identified Wappinger Lake within a Zone I Aquifer Protection Area. Portions of the Lake are also located within Authority identified Primary and Secondary Wellhead Protection Management Areas. New land uses and expansions of existing land uses within the Wappinger Creek watershed, particularly those land use activities that affect stormwater runoff into the Wappinger Creek and Wappinger Lake, have the potential to cause contamination of the aquifer that the Village depends upon. Therefore, it is important for such land use activities to be reviewed under SEQR for their potential effects on the Wappinger Lake and its aquifer.

SUMMARY There are a number of environmental characteristics that warranted designation of the Wappinger Lake as a Critical Environmental Area. They are as follows: •

The Village of Wappingers Falls’ water supply originates in an aquifer that is connected with Wappinger Lake. Water quality of the Wappinger Lake, therefore, has the potential to affect water quality of the aquifer.

•

Wappinger Lake represents an important open space and recreational resource in the Village and has been designated by Dutchess County as a Significant Natural Area for its aesthetic and scenic qualities.

•

Wappinger Lake is an important fishery resource.

•

Wappinger Lake has important historical and potential archaeological resources associated with the lands surrounding it.

•

Wappinger Lake is within an area, designated by Dutchess County, as a Zone I Aquifer Protection Area.

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Wappinger Lake Critical Environmental Area

PARCELS OF LAND WITHIN THE CEA Wappinger Lake

Tax Index Nos.:

6158-14-403426 6158-14-334494

Veterans Memorial Park

Tax Index No.:

6158-14-427382

Canale Field

Tax Index No.:

6158-10-332590

Liss Road Park

Tax Index No.:

No Grid Number Available

Prepared by: Inc. 41 Pells Road Rhinebeck, NY 12572 J. Theodore Fink, AICP May, 1998

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