BEDFORD – Construction will begin next month on a stormwater collection system that will enhance the New York City’ Department of Environmental Protection’s care of Cross River Reservoir. The $1.1 million project will protect water quality by capturing runoff, sediment, and nutrients from a 9.3-acre drainage area in the Town of Bedford.
The project will collection stormwater runoff from an area along Maple Avenue, a gravel road that runs downhill toward the reservoir.
DEP will improve and reinforce several hundred feet of roadside ditches that collect stormwater runoff along Maple Avenue.
The ditches will be lined with stone to prevent erosion. The ditches will direct water into a new system of underground pipes and filters that will remove sediment from the runoff. Clean water will then be conveyed through a stone-lined channel and into the reservoir.
Work will begin the first week in August and take about four months to complete.
DEP estimates the new system will capture more than six pounds of phosphorus each year. In large quantities, nutrients like phosphorus can degrade water quality by exacerbating the growth of algae, or by changing the taste and smell of drinking water.
