Kensico Reservoir

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Kensico Reservoir is a reservoir located in Westchester County, New York that was put into service in 1915. It is about 3 miles (4.8 kilometres) north of White Plains, New York, and about 15 miles (24 kilometres) north of New York City. It was formed by impounding the Bronx River, but receives most of its water from other places. For instance, it also shares water with Rye Lake, which is separated from the Kensico Reservoir by Great Island, an island in the middle of the lake/reservoir that used to be the top of a mountain. It is the only reservoir within the Catskill/Delaware Watersheds that is not in the Catskill Mountains.

1 History
2 Construction
3 Demographics
4 Dam Restoration
5 External links

[edit] History

As the population of New York City grew in the 19th century, so did the need for water. The first use of water from Westchester County came from the old Croton dam which was completed in 1842. In the 1880s, the City faced increasing demands for water and therefore needed to enlarge the Croton Reservoir to meet that need. The enlargement of the Croton Reservoir was completed in 1905 as a part of a system of reservoirs designed to bring water from Putnam and Westchester Counties (the Croton Watershed) to New York City.

In 1885 the Kensico Dam was built south of the village of Kensico, New York as an additional source of water for New York City. A granite dam formed a small lake from water supplied by the Bronx and Byram Rivers, but it was still not enough for the ever increasing population of New York City. What was need was a reservoir that would contain waters from various reservoirs and act as a holding tank that could provide the needed water to New York City.

The village of Kensico was surrounded by hills that came to a natural v-shape and there was a nearby quarry on Silver Lake in North Castle, making the town a logical site for the new dam. Although relatively small, Kensico had houses, stores, churches, hotels and a railroad station with a population of about 200 people.

In 1905, legislation was passed by New York State to allow money to be raised for the building of the Kensico Reservoir. The next year, final planning by the state was approved, and preliminary surreys were started. Seventeen miles of railroad track were privately built to carry materials from quarries at nearby Cranberry and Silver Lakes to the dam site; this spur railroad and a highway network had to be built to move supplies into place. A camp for the workers and their families (whom were mostly Irish immigrants), had to be constructed along with facilities such as schools for the children.

To prepare for the dam construction, each individual lot of land was condemned, appraised and the owner paid a fair value for the land. Many of the families had to move to such surrounding towns as Valhalla, Armonk and White Plains. The village of Kensico was then flooded to make way for the dam.

[edit] Construction

The actual construction of the dam began in 1913 and was concluded in 1917, three years ahead of schedule at a cost of more than $15,000,000. The dam is 1,825 feet long. It stands 307 feet above its foundation and contains 1,000,000 cubic feet of masonry, as much masonry as the Egyptians used to build some of the pyramids. In one month, 2.5 million cubic yards of concrete were poured into blocks which had to cure for three months before being swung onto the rising hyperbolic pile of dam. The dam is able to hold back about 30 billion gallons of water.

New York City’s main contractor built a work camp at nearby Valhalla for the 1,500 men who worked on the dam at the height of construction. The water supply board created a mounted police force to keep order. Crews were made up of largely Italian immigrants who began the long task of digging straight down to a depth of 110 feet to reach solid rocks with no water-bearing seams. This entailed months of blasting and a number of fatal accidents. As the aqueduct neared completion in 1913, the work gangs at Kenisco began laying the first of the concrete bricks of which the dam is built.

The tremendous influx of workers provided a period of prosperity for the surrounding area. New stores, rooming houses, hotels, restaurants and saloons met the needs of the workers and their families. Many of the construction families remained in the area after completion of the dam, contributing to the growth and character of Valhalla and its environs. The Kenisco Reservoir was acquired as parkland in 1963 from the New York City Watershed Commission and remains the property of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.

[edit] Demographics

The reservoir is the collecting point for the water from all six reservoirs in the Catskill Mountains; the Ashokan Reservoir, the Cannonsville Reservoir, the Neversink Reservoir, the Pepacton Reservoir, the Rondout Reservoir, and the Schoharie Reservoir. It also receives water from the the Croton Falls Reservoir, the Muscoot Reservoir, the New Croton Reservoir, and the West Branch Reservoir through the Catskill and Delaware aqueducts, along with water from Rye Lake.

The resulting body of water has a drainage basin of only 13 square miles (20.8 square kilometres), and holds 30.6 billion gallons (115.8 million m³) of water at full capacity. The reservoir itself provides only 2% of NYC's water supply; the rest of the water comes from the reservoirs it connects to. The water in the reservoir either provides NYC with water, or it travels down the spillway at the southernmost dam, and continues down the rest of the Bronx river, eventually flowing to the Hudson River.

The water that does supply water to New York City travels down either the Catskill Aqueduct or the Delaware Aqueduct. If it goes down the Delaware Aqueduct, it will pass through Yonkers, and flow through the Hillview Reservoir. It then continues through The Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and then stops at Staten Island. If it flows through the Delaware Aqueduct, It will stop at the Hillview Reservoir, and continue on through The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and then stop at Staten Island.

[edit] Dam Restoration

In 2006 the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) began a $31.4 million project to rehabilitate the Kensico Dam, including restoration of the decorative stonework and spillways. The project is expected to be completed by January 2007.