Sucker Brook Grant Awards

Governor George E. Pataki and Secretary of State Randy Daniels recently announced $225,000 in matching grants to improve water quality and habitat protection in the Canandaigua Lake watershed.  Governor Pataki said in announcing a series of competitive grants for the Great Lakes and Finger Lakes, "we are committed to protecting and improving the quality of these majestic waterways for the benefit of future generations and this additional funding for watershed restoration will help us to achieve that objective." Assemblyman Brian Kolb also played a key role in lobbying for these state grant dollars.  Assemblyman Kolb stated, “that he applauds the efforts of the Canandaigua Lake Watershed Council and looks forward to the important work that will be accomplished on Sucker Brook. 

This work will is part of an overall watershed plan to reduce the amount of sediment, salt, heavy metals, organics, bacteria and pesticides entering Canandaigua Lake, a water supply for over 60,000 people.   The Sucker Brook project includes multiple phases: dredging a section of Sucker Brook that has accumulated sediment, brook cleanout/maintenance and design a comprehensive stormwater management strategy to reduce the impacts of urban runoff. 

Dredge Project: In the winter of 2003, approximately 2,000 cubic yards of sediment was removed from Sucker Brook between Parrish St. and the Rt. 5&20 Bridge in the City of Canandaigua.  This area was widened by a previous landowner in the mid 1980’s and has acted as a sediment basin allowing sediment and other various pollutants to settle out before the brook enters the lake.  The site is a 300’ X 60’ section of the brook that was dredged approximately 3’ deep using a long boom excavator to remove the accumulated sediment.  County, City and Town crews undertook the trucking to the county landfill where it was used as daily cover.  Dredging this section removed the possibility of this material being washed into the lake or fill in the state boat launch area and allow it once again to act as a settling basin.  An additional set of benefits will be to improve the flow of water in this section of the stream thus reducing the threat of flooding upstream and allowing for the more effective migration of White Suckers to migrate to their spawning grounds approximately one mile upstream.  

This innovative dredging opportunity provided one of the only opportunities to both remove sediment and the associated pollutants from an already developed urban setting before Sucker Brook enters Canandaigua Lake along with installing a settling basin to capture future pollutant loads. Timing of the project was based on multiple factors including: White Sucker spawning season, low lake levels, stream flow, antecedent wetness, frozen ground and weather forecasts. 

Another part of the of the project will be to utilize volunteers, a private contractor and City of Canandaigua crews to undertake clean out and maintenance operations between Parrish St. and North Pearl St.  Debris ranging from shopping carts to trees have been deposited or fallen into the brook and deflect flow into the streambanks causing substantial erosion problems. Landowners adjacent to the brook have attended public meetings regarding potential solutions to the brook’s problems and responded favorably to these maintenance activities.  Permission to enter forms would need to be signed before progressing with this portion of the project.

Thornton Engineering was hired to design a comprehensive stream protection strategy for the urban portion of this subwatershed.  Five years of monitoring Sucker Brook along with national studies demonstrate that impervious surfaces, which consists of buildings, roads, driveways, sidewalks and parking lots is the leading cause of non-point source pollution to surface waters.  The City of Canandaigua has a stringent Stormwater and Erosion Control ordinance inplace on new construction.  However, the overwhelming majority of the pollution problems arise from existing development that occurred before proper stormwater controls were established thus containing no facilities for stormwater runoff management. Many of these areas in the city are highly urbanized and fully developed with little space available for retrofitting activities using traditional stormwater management techniques. 

Thornton Engineers has designed a specific strategy to reduce the impact of Sucker Brook on Canandaigua Lake that will include stabilizing stream bank solutions for 5 high priority and accessible sites, and assess the utility of the wide array of stormwater strategies that may fit in areas of high impervious cover and limited areas for traditional surface retention.  The firm will also map out the entire Stormwater system as part of the overall Phase II Stormwater permit and to better assess contributing sources of pollution. 

This phase will work in conjunction with the finishing basin between Parrish St. and Rt. 5&20 Bridge and the stream clean out effort in the City of Canandaigua along with agricultural BMP’s and land acquisition in the Town of Canandaigua to provide long-term pollution reduction solutions. 

MRB Engineering has been hired to design a comprehensive stormwater runoff model to determine the peak discharges in the stream and how to best manage stormwater to reduce flooding and improve water quality.  Significant funds will go towards installing stormwater retention system to reduce flooding at the elementary school.

Watershed Program Manager Kevin Olvany said that “it is important to remember that because of the intense land uses surrounding Sucker Brook it will never be a pristine stream system, but we still must take proactive steps to reduce our impact on Sucker Brook and eventually Canandaigua Lake within an urban/agricultural landscape.  We have identified the problems through scientific research; this grant will begin to address these problems along with designing a long term strategy that will make us even more competitive for future grant dollars.” 

Questions about the grant award can be directed to the Canandaigua Lake Watershed Program Manager.

© Canandaigua Lake Watershed Council 2002

This Page Last Updates On: November 23, 2005