RENSSELAERVILLE — The sound of running water at the Lake Myosotis dam has gotten louder recently, raising concerns that a longstanding leak has gotten worse, potentially shortening the amount of time the town of Rensselaerville, which relies on the dam for its water system, and the Huyck Preserve, which manages the dam, have to implement critical fixes. 

Rensselaerville Water and Sewer Advisory Committee Chairman Ed Csukas told the town board at its Feb. 8 meeting that he had recently visited the dam at the behest of the Huyck Preserve because “someone there has noticed that … the sound of a leak has gotten more prominent.” 

Csukas said the preserve is “taking their own initiative to hire an engineering firm to actually analyze and come up with recommendations for what might be done sooner” than had been thought was necessary. 

Huyck Preserve Executive Director Anna Rhoades could not immediately be reached, nor could the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

The Lake Myosotis Dam is a high-hazard dam, which means that, if it were to fail, there’s a high potential for damage including loss of life; the classification does not mean that the dam is at a high risk of failure. 

In 2008, The Enterprise quoted hydrologist Rick Woidt, who had studied the dam for the town as a proactive measure, as saying that a failure would likely result in a flood wave that travels 10 miles downstream.

“The major area of concern is right downstream, in the hamlet, right when you come into Rensselaerville, the Edmund Niles Huyck Preserve, a couple bridges, I think 10 or 15 inhabited homes, and four or five roadways or bridges,” Woidt said at the time.

Woidt had noted 16 years ago that parts of the dam’s spillway — which allows water over the top of the dam — was “old and deteriorated.”

Csukas told the board last week that the town still needs to increase the size of the spillway, per the DEC’s orders. 

The worsening leak, however, is related to the dam’s low-level output pipe, which allows water out when the water level is too low to go over the spillway. 

That leak was first discovered in 2018, along with other issues like stone buildup. A report found that the dam wall itself was in good condition, but that a crack in the pipe was allowing for the leak. 

Highway Superintendent Jason Rauf, who was on the town board in 2018, said he recalled the cost for repair at that time being around $10,000, but the town was unable to move forward because “we were unable to secure a vendor.” 

Councilman Randy Bates, who was highway superintendent in 2018, recalled that it was “unnerving to stand there and hear water running under the dam, where it shouldn’t be running.” 

Another obstacle to repairs was that the town was disqualified from a major grant because it had not participated in the formulation Albany County’s high-hazard mitigation plan at the time. The town now is already planning on participating in the formulation of a new plan, which is in its early stages.

“The thought was because we are now participating in the new plan, which takes probably a year to go into place, it would then allow the Huyck Preserve … to apply for that same grant money to do work both on the spillway and repair that [pipe,]” Csukas said. 

“This thing could take a couple of years before it actually comes to fruition,” he went on. “The issue — and the reason they invited me out to see that [leak], or hear it — is because they’re concerned it’s gotten worse, and we may not have the time it will take to get to that point. It’s getting close to being urgent, hopefully not an emergency.”