Livingston Manor Eyes Long-Term Flood Fix with Willowemoc Floodplain Restoration

LIVINGSTON MANOR, NY– Livingston Manor was recently awarded a $4.7 million state grant from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to restore 11 acres of Willowemoc Creek’s historic floodplain and drastically reduce flooding in the downtown area by as much as three feet.

Severe recurring flooding has persisted in the hamlet for decades, which Town of Rockland Supervisor Rob Eggleton says has devastated the local community.

“Some of the past [floods], we’ve had some severe loss of houses. We actually had a loss of life on one of the floods we had from the Cattail Brook. Every time it floods, the downtown area is the area that gets it right away,” said Eggleton.

Emily Perkins, an engineer with Redfish Engineering, says the existing berms only protect the area against minor flooding. “However, during larger storm events, those berms overtop and they actually can constrain the flows in larger storm events, causing those flood waters to back up.”

The project would require relocating the Rockland Central School District’s athletic facilities away from the floodplain where it currently sits and to the Town’s former poultry plant property – a move that some school board members say could be expensive.

School board president Ed Gorr raised concerns at the April 7 school board meeting that the proposed facility area may need to be used in the future for other possible mandates, like EV charging stations. Other board members raised concerns about distance and access that student athletes would have to locker rooms, restrooms, and main school buildings under the proposed plan.

“As a lifelong resident of the Town of Rockland, I really appreciate everybody’s attempt to help the town, but as a [school] board member I feel like this puts the school in a vulnerable position,” said Gorr.

The project team, which comprises the Town of Rockland, Redfish Engineering, and Trout Unlimited, says they’re looking forward to working with the school. Tracy Brown, Northeast Restoration Manager at Trout Unlimited, says that the project is still in its conceptual design development.

“Having the school on board is critical because we have so many of the details to work out,” said Brown. “I hope that we have the opportunity to do more of a working meeting where we’re really looking at the details that they were asking and starting to really build out a concept that would work for everyone.

Downtown Livingston Manor sits at the heart of several trout fishing streams including the Willowemoc Creek, Little Beaver Kill, and Cattail Brook, making it especially prone to flooding. By removing the existing barriers, the project aims to nearly eliminate both 50-year floods on Main Street and 100-year floods on school grounds.

The Willowemoc Restoration project is part of the state’s efforts to mitigate flooding and build more resilient watersheds in flood-prone communities across New York.

Image: Severe flooding in Livingston Manor, NY, in 2006 (Photo Credit: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)