Many residents up and down the East Coast suffered damages from the nor”™easter and subsequent flooding it caused earlier this month, including the Black Dirt farmers of Orange County.
But for farmers in that region, flooding of that magnitude is regrettably nothing new.
“Two years ago we had severe flooding, but this flood is worse than that one,” said onion grower Paul Ruszkiewicz, chairman of the Wallkill Valley Drainage Improvement Association. “I”™d say there were 4,000 acres underwater (the day after the flood.)”
This is the third “50-year flood” the region has experienced in less than three years, Orange County onion farmer Chris Pawelski said.
“This is something more than Mother Nature; this is man made,” he said.
Ruszkiewicz believes the excessive flooding can at least be partially attributed to bank erosion along the Wallkill River.
In 1938, the Army Corps of Engineers started a project to improve drainage along the river but it was never completed due to a lack of funding, he said.
Since he has been involved with the Drainage Improvement Association, Ruszkiewicz said there has been talk from the state”™s federal representatives about providing funding to finish the project, but nothing has yet materialized.
“There are potential major projects that could be done, as long as we can find the funding. The 1938 Army Corps project is one example,” he said.
Another possibility is to construct dikes along the entire river, but that too costs money. He said the Drainage Improvement Association is researching if there are grants available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to do that.
“You can”™t completely avoid flooding in the area, but there are things you can do to avoid it,” Ruszkiewicz said.
U.S. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, toured the area a few days after the storm, and he and fellow Hudson Valley Reps. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Hudson, and Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, called on the USDA to provide swift funding for farmers affected by the flood.
“These conditions may pose a significant challenge to farmers in the Hudson Valley and elsewhere in the state due to soil damage and limitations on field access due to flooding. The storm also threatens to exacerbate delays in planting that local farmers have already experienced due to unseasonably low temperatures,” the legislators wrote in a joint letter sent to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns.
U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer also called on Johanns to personally tour the Black Dirt region to see the damage firsthand.
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Ruszkiewicz hopes there will be funding available, but at this point residents of the area have to make do.
“There”™s a little bit you can do, but not too much, it can be frustrating,” he said.
In addition to riverbank erosion, urban development may have played some factor in the flooding problems the region has experienced, said Kevin Sumner, manager for the Orange County Soil and Water District.
He says the number of new developments constructed in the region over the past five to 10 years have hindered water runoff from the river.
“There”™s a change in the land cover from pervious to impervious conditions, it can”™t soak up as much water,” he said. “Naturally, you have flat and ponded areas where water can soak in. In a new development, no one wants a puddle in their yard; everything is graded so the water runs off. The key issue is that there”™s still more volume of runoff, and instead of the ground soaking up water, it”™s running off into the stream system. The Black Dirt region gets more water and it sits in the valley.”
Sumner is quick to point out that development is not the whole reason for excessive flooding in the area.
“That ground is subsiding year after year, the elevation of the soil surface is going down as a result of various natural processes, so flooding will continue to get worse,” he said.
Still, he believes employing low-impact construction principals on new developments can somewhat help the problem.
He said there is a county law that states new developments more than 5 acres have to be built to keep their water runoff at the pre-development levels. However, that isn”™t generally enforced, in large part because it costs developers more money and they sometimes threaten to take a municipality to court over enforcement of the law, Sumner said.
The Soil and Water Conservation District works with local planning boards in an effort to get new developments to adopt low-impact principals, and Sumner says they have had some success.
Ruszkiewicz said the recent flooding has delayed the start of the growing season for some area farmers and hurt those who had already planted.
“I talked to a greens grower, he only had six to seven acres planted so it”™s not a huge fiscal loss but it sets him back, it”™s that much later that you have no product,” he said. “It”™s hard to do anything until the water goes down.”
Sumner hopes the recent storm will make some of the region”™s needs a priority at the federal level.
“We hope they take a fresh look at the Black Dirt and think about some different options,” he said. “Unfortunately, after the storm is over people tend to forget.”
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Farmers should always record damage and report it to the Farm Service Agency (FSA), said Lucy Joyce, agriculture issue leader with the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Orange County. The FSA is an arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Farmers can call the FSA locally at (845) 343-1874 for information.
Also, New York FarmNet offers counseling services to farm families. The organization provides free and confidential consultations on farm visits to help farmers find solutions to a range of issues, including finances, farm changes, disaster, stress and conflict. FarmNet can be reached toll-free at (800) 547-3276.
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