The Delaware County Planning Department (DCPD) provides professional decision-making support to the citizens of Delaware County and to other agencies regarding land use, watershed protection, and sustainable community development. For more than 30 years, staff have accomplished this mission by providing technical assistance through programs like the Town Planning Advisory Service (TPAS), Environmental Planning and Geographic Information Systems. Planning capacity to meet

water quality objectives is substantially developed in Delaware County. The need to protect water in the Delaware and Susquehanna River Basins has greatly amplified the technical complexities of local land use decisions. Through the TPAS, the DCPD, in collaboration with the County Planning Board, is assisting twenty-eight of the twenty-nine Delaware County communities with comprehensive planning, capital projects, watershed management, grant writing, well-head protection, the

State Environmental Quality Review Act, land-use training and mapping services. TPAS is responsible for successfully extending DCAP initiatives countywide, through local planning boards. The DCPD and TPAS collaborate on other planning tools including those related to SEQRA compliance, floodplain mapping and regulations, subdivision requirements, site plans, zoning, historic districts, highway management, and agriculture and farmland protection, among others.

Inside this issue:

DCAP Spotlight:

Planning Tools

1

Planning Department

DCAP Goals

1

Precision Feed

Management Continues

To Evolve in

Delaware County

2

A Flood Resilient Future

For the Village of Sidney

3

New Management

Method for Japanese

Knotweed Infested Soils

4

DCAP QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER Encourage and empower communities to be stewards of the watershed. Maintain the high quality

water supply while supporting environmental integrity, rural character, and economic stability.

D C A P P A R T N E R S

Delaware County

Departments of:

Watershed Affairs

Planning

Economic Development

Public Works

Code Enforcement

Emergency Services

Delaware County Soil &

Water Conservation District

Cornell Cooperative Extension

Q1 2016

DCAP SPOTLIGHT: PLANNING TOOLS

The Planning Department has six DCAP goals: Goal 1: Develop the Delaware County Comprehensive Plan inclusive of DCAP objectives and procedures, in cooperation with the municipalities in the County, for approval by the Board of Supervisors. Goal 2: Continue to provide technical and planning support to County municipalities through the TPAS. Goal 3: Seek funding and support for the TPAS to implement flood mitigation

efforts outlined in the AHMP and the LFAs. Goal 4: Thoroughly examine the accomplishments of TPAS since 2006 to capture the full range of technical expertise and assistance offered and update existing County and municipal documents to reflect achievements and future goals for communities. Goal 5: Explore inclusion of DCAP in the state CPP 1. Update and annually maintaining its Water Quality Management (WQM) Plan, embodied in DCAP as

element four of the CPP, including schedules for revision, and 2. Foster and enable intergovernmental and interagency cooperation especially to control and manage nonpoint sources in Delaware County on a hydrological sub-basin and watershed scale. Goal 6: Continue applying information and processes throughout Delaware County that were developed in the NYC watershed to the extent of community interest and where funding allows.

One of the most successful

programs that was developed

under the Delaware County

Action Plan (DCAP) that nailed

both watershed protection and

economic aims of DCAP

squarely on the head, has been

the Precision Feed Management

(PFM) for dairy farms.

Delaware County was a

vanguard in this arena, one of

the first field based PFM

implementation programs in the

nation, thanks to the foresight

of Delaware County, Cornell

Cooperative Extension of

Delaware County and the

Delaware County Soil and

Water Conservation District,

who partnered in 1999 to

develop the first PFM research

and demonstration project.

From this first successful PFM

program, funded by a mix of

state and federal funds,

including and NYS Ag Non-

Point Source grant funds as well

as US Army Corps of Engineers

WRDA-WEAP funds, came an

on-going partnership amongst

the partners and successive

opportunities to further

develop and refine the PFM

approach from 2003 till the

present time. The Delaware

County Soil and Water

Conservation District has been

a key partner with Cornell

Cooperative Extension of

Delaware County in the

implementation of PFM in the

Susquehanna and Tail Waters

portions of the county, to the

point where today nearly all

of the dairy farms in those

watersheds have

participated in the PFM

program. After a three year hiatus

due to gaps in funding, and

thanks to a strong

partnership with and

support from the Watershed

Agricultural Council, PFM is

now being offered again to

dairy farms in the NYC

watershed. This feels like a

coming home of sorts as out

first PFM efforts were funded

to work with farms in the NYC

watershed- Cannonsville Basin.

What is different this time, and

also very exciting, is that for the

first time, through the NYC

Watershed Agricultural

Program, PFM is being offered

to farms in the entire NYC

Watershed west of Hudson,

and is being offered on an on-

going basis as part of the

regular nutrient management

planning efforts of the NYC

WAP. As a result of the very

successful and effective efforts

of the previous ten years of

PFM efforts under DCAP, the

NYS Department of Health and

NYS Department of

Environmental Conservation

regulators saw common-sense

conservation benefits of PFM

for dairy farms, and have now

required implementation of

PFM on up to 60 dairy farms in

the west of Hudson Watershed

through the regulatory

mechanism of the Filtration

Avoidance Determination

(FAD). The Watershed Ag

Council, for its part, saw and

heard from farmers that PFM

brought them real economic

benefits. From day one, PFM

has been win-win – delivering

effective and real nutrient

management and economic

PRECIS ION FEED MANAGEMENT CONTINUES

TO EVOLVE IN DELAWARE COUNTY viability benefits, aligned

perfectly with the tenets of

DCAP, and the WAC.

The formal implementation

of PFM through the NYC WAP

begun in earnest in October of

2015, and proceeded with an

initial sign up of farms

interested in participating.

Forty six dairy farms signed up

to participate in the initial

round of sign ups, giving us over

approximately 70% of the total

dairy farms signed up. We have

begun implementation of PFM

on the first 20 farms in 2016,

and will commence

implementation of PFM on

remaining farms over the next

two years. Under the

NYCWAP, PFM will be an on-

going planning effort, similar to

manure nutrient management

planning, and will therefore

allow the program staff to

engage with farmers routinely

over time, without the vagaries

of ending grant funding cycles.

This will strengthen

relationships and only serve to

make PFM more successful.

PFM in the NYCWAP is again

under the leadership of Cornell

Cooperative Extension of

Delaware County, as it has

been for previous PFM projects,

and is part of the Nutrient

Management Team of the NYC

WAP. It includes a mix of

Cornell Cooperative Extension

of Delaware County and

Watershed Ag Council staff.

We are excited to be back on

farms in the NYC watershed,

to be engaged with them in

implementing sound

conservation and real economic

viability.

Article contributed by:

Paul Cerosaletti,

Cornell Cooperative Extension

of Delaware County

From day one , Precision Feed Management has been a win-win—delivering effective and real nutrient

management and economic viability benefits , aligned perfectly with the tenets of the DCAP , and the WAC.

Precision Feed Management, confined system, Hager Farm, Town of Kortright

The Sidney Greenplain is a

series of constructed wetlands

and stormwater containment

ponds designed to increase the

holding capacity of the flood-

plain, effectively reducing flood

impacts throughout the village

and the Sidney Industrial Park.

This natural system is designed

to be sustainable with minimal

maintenance, but is also intend-

ed to be a beautiful addition to

the community

that will bring

visitors to the

area. It will in-

clude a series of

trails and will

serve as a canvas

for educational

platforms. In

addition, the vil-

lage has envi-

sioned a future

project that would

place a small am-

phitheater adja-

cent to the

Greenplain that

could provide an

additional attrac-

tion. As part of the

development of

the Greenplain,

163 homes and

businesses will be

bought out and

demolished with

assistance from

FEMA and the

New York State Governor’s

Office of Storm Recovery. In

addition there will be a total of

twelve elevation projects.

Once the land is cleared of

structures, roads, sidewalks and

other municipal infrastructure

the area will be engineered to

support the development of the

wetlands and stormwater areas. The loss of housing inventory

and associated tax base was a

major concern for the village so

additional efforts needed to be

made to address these issues.

As a result the village has part-

nered with Delaware County,

Delaware Opportunities, NBT

Bank and Two Plus Four Con-

struction to rehabilitate older

homes in the village, build 22

units of affordable single family

homes for purchase, 54 units of

rental housing and a large sen-

ior housing project. These

housing efforts are intended to

meet the immediate needs of

displaced residents from the

acquisitions as well as provide

the catalyst for future growth

of new neighborhoods that can

be annexed into the village for

additional housing inventory. The housing efforts are cou-

pled with a Main Street revitali-

zation project that is intended

to beautify Main Street while

providing much needed storm-

water holding capacity and wa-

ter quality values through the

use of rain gardens along Main

Street. These projects will

make downtown a desirable

place to visit while providing a

walkable business district. This

is needed to encourage addi-

tional business development

along the corridor, further

increasing tax values. All of the projects that have

been developed in the Village

are being done as a cohesive

and holistic approach to mitiga-

tion. The village determined

early in the planning process all

of these components are inter-

twined and each benefits the

others. As a result, the village

and all of their partners have

secured $1.6 million for Main

Street infrastructure, $24 mil-

lion for acquisitions, $3 million

for infrastructure for housing

development and $1.6 million

for new housing and housing

rehabilitation. Additionally

there are applications in excess

of $5 million for supplemental

housing projects and an applica-

tion for $15 million for the

engineering and design of the

Greenplain. In total these equal

an astounding $50 million! The Village of Sidney is far

from done with all of these

projects; but are well on their

way. In addition to this there

are more projects to be done

including façade improvements,

higher value housing to attract

young executive families to the

area, additional structural eleva-

tions, and stormwater retrofit

projects that will further in-

crease resiliency and sustaina-

bility in the future. This project

is expected to take 10 to 20

years to come to full fruition.

This long term commitment is

the success story of Sidney as

we move forward.

Article contributed by:

Shelly Johnson-Bennett

Delaware County

Planning Department

A FLOOD-RESILLAINT FUTURE FOR

THE VILLAGE OF SIDNEY The Village of Sidney was dev-

astated twice in back to back

floods five years apart. The June

2006 flood event destroyed

homes, businesses, churches and

government buildings alike.

However; the village was opti-

mistic and with a lot of hard

work and determination they

rebuilt. In 2011 the village was

once again under water. This

time the village took a different

approach to rebuilding. The floods of 2011 left the

village residents and business

owners homeless for weeks and

in some cases months. They

were still recovering from the

2006 flood and could not afford

the cost of rebuilding a second

time. As a result, the village

board applied for and was

awarded a $50,000 Long Term

Community Recovery Grant.

With this money they were able

to hire River Street Planning to

help them examine and address

their flooding issues and make

Sidney a more resilient and less

vulnerable community in the

future. The consultant a board ap-

pointed committee worked to

collect all previously completed

studies and reports on flood

impacts in the village, hold multi-

ple public meetings and a week-

end visioning session. They met

with the major employers in the

community as well as residents,

not for profit organizations and

community based philanthropic

groups to gather information

about damages, mitigation

measures they have taken and

services they provide to the

local community. After intensive study the team

came up with a plan to remedi-

ate flooding impacts in the fu-

ture, and also provide for resili-

ent business growth and a com-

munity that has a strong quality

of life component. The plan

became a holistic approach to

mitigation with an emphasis on

natural flood resiliency, allowing

the river to use the flood plains

for storage through community

relocation efforts, structural

elevations and the development

of an innovative flood control

now known as the “Sidney

Greenplain”.

Sidney Greenplain, Plan View

1 Courthouse Square, Suite 3

Delhi, NY 13753

Website Address: delcowatershed.com

Phone: 607-832-5432

The Water Starts Here

The Delaware County

Department of Watershed Affairs was created in 1999 to

increase awareness of and assist with issues related to the

New York City Watershed and to preserve the environment

and economy of the communities within the

watershed.

Most of us are familiar with

the broad-leaved invasive plant

Japanese Knotweed (Polygonum

cuspidatum, among other Latin

names), locally known as

“bamboo.” And most of us

know that applications of

compost tend to help plants

grow better. So who would

expect that compost could be

used to kill Japanese Knotweed

roots in soil? In the September

2016 edition of the journal

Ecological Restoration Larry Day

(DC SWCD) and Susan

McIntyre (DC DPW) explain

how they found an

unconventional method of using

compost to treat soil infested

with knotweed. Efforts to

control the spread of this plant

are important because of its

tendency to dominate stream

bank vegetation while increasing

stream corridor instability. Their study began out of

necessity after a 2015 stream /

road bank failure along East

Brook Road in Walton, which

some readers may recall as a

DPW road project that took

months to complete. In this

complex project some 60 cubic

yards of knotweed-infested soil

was removed from the site to

allow for stream and road bank

stabilization. The unwanted soil

material was trucked to

Delaware County’s Solid Waste

Management Center, which is

also where large volumes of

compost are continually

created from a mixture of

municipal solid waste and

biosolids residuals from

wastewater treatment plants. To produce a safe and

marketable finished product,

the temperature of the

County’s composting process is

maintained high enough and

long enough (131+ °F over

three consecutive days) to kill

pathogenic bacteria in biosolids

as well as any weed seeds from

plants. Knowing this, Ms.

McIntyre and Mr. Day decided

to try completely enclosing the

infested soil with layers of

compost in an outdoor setting.

By the time the trucks stopped

rolling and the dust settled, a 20

-ft by 200-ft long pile was

created of compost-

encapsulated soil. For the rest of the details

interested readers will need to

look for the research article,

currently in press, at https://

uwpress.wisc.edu/journals/

journals/er.html. But in brief,

after four months of treatment

all tested samples of knotweed

were found to be lifeless. Now

in its second growing season,

the original pile has subsided or

shrunk in size as the compost

oxidized and stabilized, yet not

a single knotweed plant has

sprouted from it. This study offers hope for

improved Japanese knotweed

management and a new avenue

of research for its control in

the field. It also shows how

local efforts towards watershed

management continue to pay

dividends within and beyond

the borders of Delaware

County.

Article contributed by:

Larry Day, Delaware County Soil and

Water Conservation District

NEW MANAGEMENT METHOD FOR JAPANESE

KNOTWEED INFESTED SOILS

Brown interiors of dead Japanese Knotweed Roots after treatment